Before 24 Billion and Counting

Chapter 24 Part 1 Creeping on broken glass

The Saturday was at first filled with shopping, the most important item being a new mobile phone. I also required passport photos and a haircut. 

The new phone needed some attention to accustom myself to the latest operating system and getting the lap top to reload telephone numbers into it. 

I also put my garb of yesterday into the washing machine, removing from my top shirt the memory stick of the Rosetta orbit.  

I could have made the next call earlier from the land-line, but felt it would almost certainly be tapped at both ends. I rang Jean, Jacob Neuman's wife, on her mobile. I had to warn her that her phone would be tapped, I didn't see how I could avoid what we said being listened to by security at her end. 

She answered hesitantly, "Hello, who is it?"  

"It's me Jean, don't say." 

"Oh - er from a new phone, yes, I see." 

'Thank God for your quick wits', I thought. 

"Are you still ringed in steel." 

"Uh - yes." 

Through the phone I heard a noisy fuzzy purring which which rapidly rose and then faded at a lower tone, like a microlight flying over. 

"What the hell was that?" 

"One of their drones. They came a day or two after the security ring surrounded us." 

'Oh hell, they really mean business.' I thought. After Ellen's and my try for freedom they had tightened the surveillance. Maybe Jean didn't know of Ellen's fate. I couldn't tell her now.  

"Spoken to Jacob?" 

"No." 

"How are the kids?" 

"With me." 

"Ok, must go. Keep smiling. My thoughts are with you." 

"Bye. Ch - thanks for ringing." 

That was bad news. The troops were still closed round the observatory with even more assets, and Jacob and his team were still under the direct supervision of the security people. 

It occurred to me that maybe I had been let go, rather than thrown out, just to see if I would in some way reveal something. That meant I was still under surveillance, but how effective US based goons could be in New Zealand, I couldn't fathom.  

My next call was to my daughter. 

"Hello. Who's this?" 

"It's your father." 

"Dad? New phone? Where the hell have you been? Are you all right?" 

"Julie dear, I'm fine. I've been travelling. Some of it's secret." 

"Well what can you tell me - no wait, you've got an up to date phone. At last. So show me your face."  

I reluctantly turned the camera lens towards me. 

"Well you've got a tan at least - but you look somehow old. Has something terrible happened? Not Ellen - I talked to Kelly when I couldn't raise you on the phone. She was as mystified as me, but thought you'd gone to her- Ellen I mean."  

I sighed. The new phone picked up the sound. 

"Daddy?" 

"She was killed in a landslide on a mountain." 

"Oh God. I'm so sorry." 

We were both silent. At the other end I heard her children's shouts in their play.