November nineteen ninety-seven. The face of Australia was changing, the APP government was forging ahead. Jason and his cabinet had restored respect for government’s role, Dick Hamlin was treasurer; the most successful the country had seen. Indigenous people had been recognised and becalmed; interest in the country had risen dramatically. The Corporation was busy setting up its world structure of distributing the now refined transport systems, the systems were well on the way to operating in all major cities in the country. Major city links were beginning to take shape, whisper smooth trains travelling at two hundred kilometres per hour. The first sphere powered cars ran from the production line of Australia’s motor industry, in a deal with The Corporation. A new underground facility in Woomera produced the top secret power units containing the spheres. Brinkly International became the worlds most powerful company, able to expand with its spiralling profits. Brinkwick mining was producing ten billion dollars in gold per annum, Mallita cosmetics blossomed, spearheaded by the powerful perfume Regeneration. Ramrod’s venues were now showing their own bands in over one hundred countries; “Full On” was still the world’s most popular band. Brinkly manufacturing was expanding to include white-goods powered by Corporation spheres.
Election year ninety-eight, unemployment was a word of the past. Australians were proud of who they were. Crime was at an all-time low, plans for new prisons were scrapped, as existing ones emptied and gradually held only the evil. Production of exports had risen dramatically, the economy rose to surplus on a continuing trend. An October election saw the APP returned with no opposition. Jason spent little time outside Australia, working tirelessly to achieve their goals at home. Several foreign leaders had visited Jason. Some had come to threaten Jason with doom as their corrupt economies faltered in the wake of Australia’s rise. The evil sensed immense fear and fled. The good were endorsed with the same outlook, leaving with faith in what they saw and heard.
Christmas day ninety-eight, Jason was home with Anita and Tammy. Mary was spending the week at home with her family; it was the first time in their lives together that they were alone. Anita had prepared Christmas dinner and after enjoying it, they spent the afternoon around the pool. It was very quiet; Jason sensed that all was not well. He walked to the window edge of the enclosed patio, Tammy and Anita splashed round in the pool. He strained his eyes along the gum-studded hillside. He could just make out the form of a person’s head above the gabled roof of the shed he had used for so long as a rehearsal room, a hundred metres up the hillside. Jason looked at his bare chest, he saw a small red dot on his heart, and he fixed his gaze on the figure. The figure squeezed the trigger of the high powered rifle; a faint thud was heard from the weapon’s silencer. The figure stared in disbelief as Jason continued to gaze at him, the window had not broken, and Jason had not fallen. The figure fired again and again; the figure slid back from the gable of the roof out of sight to check his weapon. It looked in order; the figure removed the magazine to find it was loaded with blanks. Only a few minutes earlier it was filled with cartridges with exploding heads. The figure checked the spare magazine to find live heads. The figure hastily slid the magazine into the weapon, the figure climbed to the roof gable again, Jason had not moved.
The figure aimed and fired, again and again, the window didn’t break and Jason never fell. The figure pulled out the magazine, it was filled with blanks. The figure scrambled along the gutter to the gutter down-pipe, falling to the ground, landing at Jason’s feet. Jason pulled off the figure’s camouflaged hood; it was a middle-aged woman. She turned her eyes from his gaze; Jason grasped her chin turning her face to his. She screamed and covered her face pushing his hand away, climbed to her feet and fell against the corrugated iron of the shed facing him, still covering her eyes.
“Go back to where you came from; you and whoever sent you will be driven from the face of the earth,” said Jason. “It seems evil has no bounds, it even sends a daughter’s mother and a mother’s daughter to do such a thing. Go. I can tell you nothing more as I don’t know myself, but remember. Tell them I am coming to get you whoever you may be.”
The women fled into the gum trees and over the back of the hill. Jason returned to the house to find Tammy and Anita on the balcony of the main bedroom overlooking the valley, heat haze distorted the magnificent view on the hot summer afternoon.
“Where did you go, we couldn’t find you?” asked Anita.
Jason stared across the valley. “I found a messenger, up at the old shed. The time is near for me to be told of my task in life, I can feel it, I will need you both more than ever.”
“The old man isn’t here this morning daddy, he’s gone,” said Tammy. Jason picked Tammy up in one arm and held Anita with the other.
Anita looked into Jason’s blue eyes. “Jason, I’m pregnant,” she whispered. “Due, June the twelfth next year.”
“Am I going to have a sister?” asked Tammy.
“If it’s a sister you want, a sister it shall be,” said Anita.
Jason pecked Anita on the check. “And now we are four,” he said. He looked out across the valley again. “Here I am, the most powerful man in the country, one of the most powerful in the world. Luckier than anyone I know. I have never questioned it, but I have no idea why.”