It had been a few days since the last phone call she had with Jared, and she didn't want to talk to any of the guys. Not before what she was about to do. The least of all Jared; she didn't know what he had told the guys, but apparently Eliot had managed to send McMillan and O'Connor to Olympic Dam for her. She didn't know how they could help; they needed to be somewhere they could help everyone else and make sure they all stayed alive. Kaely was dead as it was; they were useless with her anyway. She didn't protest, however, when they came out with a proposal that Kaely couldn't refuse. Obviously, she listened. It was a way everyone could live and the man could be revealed. Kaely told them where she was going to be to help their cause, and prayed that Eliot wasn't using them to get her location. He was still sick; he couldn't risk himself more than he already had.
"You're trusting the same Feds that shot you over your friends?" Oliver snapped when he saw them, clad in their black suits and fancy ties. "I know that I haven't known you for very long, but a lot of people are telling me that they would be pissed if you got yourself killed; are you really going to risk that?"
"Please, relax," Kaely told him with a sigh as she rubbed her forehead with her fingers, attempting to soothe the headache that was pounding in her head. "Eliot sent them; they told me that Jared told the guys what was going to happen so Eliot told them to meet me. Although I don't know how they can help."
"You could always let me help," Oliver suggested, "and that way, I won't get my head ripped off for not being able to stop you from doing anything stupid."
Kaely scoffed. "Please," she muttered, "If your head's being ripped off for anything, it's for you being in Australia."
Oliver looked at her and threw his arms up in defeat, grumbling something about a burger before he walked outside. It was around noon, so that was understandable. Kaely wasn't hungry; she hadn't been since she got that phone call. She ate little, she slept less, and all the while she thought too much. She didn't know what she was doing anymore; this wasn't her life. A little under a month ago, Kaely was serving tables in a café and had never seen a gun before, and now she was forming a plan to double-cross a very powerful man with a pair of FBI agents that shot her the first time they'd encountered her. It seemed ridiculous, but she knew that it was very, very real, and that was what she was afraid of. She was afraid of losing herself. She was afraid of what she was becoming.
And she was afraid that there would be no getting herself back once she was gone.
"Kaely?"
Kaely glanced up, her head up to support her face. "Hm?" she murmured, catching her eyes onto McMillan. McMillan tilted his head sideways, cleared his throat and continued.
"I was saying," he repeated, "that we have finalised the plan. Your part is quite simple; listen to the American and do as he says. Let us handle the rest."
Kaely frowned. "What, you're not going to fill me in?" she pressed, suddenly alarmed. "You're going to send me in blind?"
"From experience," Lexus called across the room of Oliver's living area, "I can tell you that it's for the best. The less you know, the better. It'll make it more convincing."
"Yeah, because you have a habit of sending people off to their deaths without telling them what's going to happen," Kaely shot back bitterly and paced the floor of the room in a pair of black jeans and a t-shirt. Her thin brown hair was tied up behind her head; mostly because it was annoying her. The littlest things were beginning to get on her nerves; she was beginning to get anxious.
She only hoped that O'Connor and McMillan knew what they were doing; if anything in the slightest went wrong, she would not be getting out of Darwin alive.
It was time. She was getting on a plane and flying out of Olympic Dam; it was Thursday, exactly a week from the phone call. The 19th of March. Her last day alive. She wasn't feeling too stressed, to be honest; she was handling the situation quite well. Of course, that would last until she had a gun pointed to her head.
Getting in the plane at around noon at Olympic Dam with McMillan and O'Connor already ahead of her with a plan of their own, she would arrive in Adelaide at around half past one that same afternoon. She would wait in the Adelaide Airport for an hour or so and catch a plane at half past two straight to Darwin; she'd be arriving at around half past six. If she caught a taxi or a bus, she'd get to Buffalo Creek near seven o'clock; quarter to, if the details mattered. Since it was still daylight savings for a few more weeks, Kaely would have an hour to stand around with her killers, discussing why they were doing what they were doing. She knew there were things she was still ignorant of, things the boys weren't telling her, and it made her eager to learn their secrets. At the same time, she wasn't looking forward to it.
By the time she'd gotten out of the second plane, Kaely realised she was in Darwin before she was prepared; the time literally passed her by without her even knowing. She left the airport and caught a taxi, telling the driver where she was headed. And that was when she began freaking out. Breathing became hard for her lungs and her vision was doubling, tripling, even. She blinked heavily and reached her arm up absent-mindedly, digging a finger into the bandage around her shoulder. The pain jolted her out of her drifted state fast. She breathed out deeply and sighed, opening her eyes that she hadn't realised had been closed.
You're okay, she kept telling herself. You're okay.
And suddenly, she was in the carpark to Buffalo Creek, and it was seven o'clock. She thanked the driver, paid him and got out, watching him drive away as if he had been her only hope of survival, and watching him leave was one of the hardest things she'd ever have to experience.
She turned in her black hoodie, her flat sneakers thudding gently on the concrete of the carpark as she crossed it to get to the dock. And when she got there, she knew that the two men waiting in the only boat present on the water were waiting for her. She tried swallowing her fear, but that didn't work, so she held onto it tightly and glided forwards, towards the men in the boat.
One of the men got out of the boat and stood on the solids of the deck, waiting for her. She approached him and he gestured to the boat with his left hand.
"He is waiting for you," he greeted coolly, in a light Australian accent. Kaely narrowed her eyes and looked at him for a moment before following his gesture to climb into the boat, practising her breathing. Her lungs were doing their job poorly; she only wished she had practised in the taxi, or even on the plane over.
Should'a, would'a, could'a. But didn't, Kaely added with a grimace in her mind.
The boat started up gracefully, and as they moved, not a word was spoken. Kaely was grateful; she feared that if she had to speak, it would all come out in a blur of humiliation and fear. That was not something she wanted.
The boat came to a slow and steady stop on the bank of the creek a little ways down from the dock. Kaely got out. She followed the man in the suit. The other stayed in the boat.
She arrived at a large clearing a little ways away from the water; maybe that was where the American planned on dropping her body after she'd been killed. Then she frowned. That was a sentence she'd never expected herself to think.
There was a man standing in the middle of the clearing, who Kaely's guide stood beside. The man didn't strike a similarity with anyone she had seen before, which wasn't something she'd really been expecting. He had long brown hair that looked like it'd been taken care of, and was tied up carefully behind his head. Above it sat a white fedora to match his jacket and pants, and his bushy eyebrows were creased in an air of authority that suited the hat quite well, in Kaely's opinion. He knew what he was doing, and that scared her.
His deep green eyes were submerged in a sea of pity and amusement; towards her or himself, she was unsure. She guessed it was her. Instead of seeking conformation, she stopped a little away from him, uneasily twiddling her thumbs together. He wasn't what she was expecting; she didn't know why, but she imagined him with a moustache of some kind. A bushy one, perhaps, that could have defined his hat and American heritage quite well. She almost laughed at the stereotype, but remembered her situation and decided against it formally.
"Kaely Jane Monsford," the man in the hat mused finally. "I've heard much about you over the past few weeks."
Kaely swallowed again, gaining courage to speak. "I- how do you know me?" she asked quickly, trying to get her words out without making a fool of herself. She was failing; she knew that she looked pathetic, because she felt pathetic and sounded pathetic all at the same time.
"You'd be surprised by what I know, Ms. Monsford," the man in the hat murmured, leaning back on his legs. The suit man beside him stayed silent. "In fact, I've developed a full report on you and your life. I know who your parents were, Kaely. I know who your high school math teacher was. I know everything about you; including your little crush on the brooding Dalton."
Kaely's heard rang loud and clear at his words. She was being watched. They knew. "You don't know shit about me," she hissed, but he just smiled.
"I want you to understand why I've asked you out here, Ms. Monsford," the man continued, moving forward to stand directly in front of Kaely, who looked up at him and swallowed again.
"I already know why I'm here," she told him carefully. "I- I just don't know why I'm here. I wasn't involved in anything those guys were framed for; I just got busted by the news for being in the wrong place at the wrong time." The man in the hat studied Kaely for a moment or two before he laughed, the sound booming around the clearing and making Kaely flinch.
"You are pathetic for a runaway fugitive," he told her, the laughter dying down to a smug smile. "I hope you're not always like this."
"Well, I'm not always kidnapped by a politically insane American, either," she hissed, not knowing where the sudden outburst of confidence had come from.
"Oh, but we didn't kidnap you," the man in the hat mused, flicking his head towards the man in the suit behind him, who nodded and walked back towards the boat. "You came, all by yourself. No struggles at all. And the funniest part? You came alone." He chuckled at this. "Stupid girl," he muttered, shaking his head, and Kaely swallowed again, breathing in deeply.
"You told me you wouldn't hurt my friends if I came alone," she told him steadily. "Look, if you're going to kill me, can I at least know who has the pleasure of doing so?"
The man pursed his lips, then morphed them into a smirk.
"I am Richard Campbell," he announced, as if it were to mean something to Kaely. "You must know, since you are here already, that I do not wish to kill you. I need you for something. Something special. But if you're not going to co-operate, then you will be forcing my hand."
"Tell me about the Governor-General," Kaely blurted before she could help herself, and Richard Campbell lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes sceptically. He spoke after a moment of silence.
"Wade Smith..." he murmured, rolling the name off of his tongue as if it were a food he had taken a dislike to. "Horrid man. Thinks he's the most important person in the world; what does that make him?" He spat the last part angrily, then composed himself, smoothing down the material of his jacket. "I want Wade Smith dead because of what he did to me before he became Governor General. He was charged for murder; for the murder of my wife and child. I know he did it; I just know it. But he pleaded not guilty, and the plea was heard in court. He got out a free man, and my family is now dead. So I had to rearrange a new one."
"You're killing the Governor-General of Australia to settle a score?" Kaely demanded. "A score that might not even be correct? Do you have any idea what's going to happen if you kill him? The country will go into chaos; all the politicians will blame it on each other. Australia will be divided; the country will tear itself apart!"
"I will not let the weak-minded lecture me about war," Campbell snapped. "You know nothing of your own name to be judgemental about mine."
Kaely paused. "Wait," she hesitated, "my own name? What's that supposed to mean?" Campbell watched her and tilted his head sideways.
"You know too much, Ms. Monsford," he deadpanned. "I think it's time you I do what I came here to do. Don't worry, you'll be fine. Just a little... insurance, that's all." Following his words, Campbell dug a gun out of his pocket and flicked the safety back just as something snapped from behind her. And then a voice; a familiar voice, speaking directly to the man in the hat.
"Put the gun down. Now."