LP and Bear were becoming anxious. Bear turned to LP, saying "He's taking his bloody time. Hope he hasn't run into any trouble."
“Yeah, like the night before goin' south to Bells Beach, when we had a punch up with that skinhead mob on the top floor of Lennon's Hotel.”
While waiting for Brownie, they reminisced over what had happened that night. LP had downed a schooner of beer before walking down a narrow pathway between table and chairs. He turned and said to Brownie and Bear, "Keep an eye on my back. Those dickhead skinheads could be trouble.”
LP squeezed his way past one bloke blocking the entrance to the men's room. Soon, as he walked back out, seeing nothing had changed, he pushed forward a white chair with an angry skin head gasping for breath as his chest was pushed into the corner table.
Brownie and Bear, seeing what was erupting, started running towards their mate. Four tattooed chrome dome blokes jumped up from their chairs and one slid across the table towards LP. LP raised his arm and gave him a right upper cut to the nose with enough force to splinter bone, piercing his already brain dead tattooed forehead that read ‘Ancient Warrior’.
Brownie, with the force of his dreamtime ancestors surrounding him in spirit, raised his left leg and kicked another opponent in the head, sending him smashing to a floor soaked in spilt beer.
Bear nabbed another bloke and gave him three quick jabs to his ribs, plus one almighty punch to crack the bloke’s jaw. He fell down, blood trickling from his mouth.
Bouncers pounced, restraining Bear, Brownie and LP. They quickly pushed them towards Lennon’s top floor foyer of lifts, to be sent down out onto Brisbane's Queen Street, in the heart of the city. Bear was agitated and itching to finish the fight.
He figured those skinheads would be ejected pretty soon. They started walking down a well lit pavement when Bear pointed to a dark laneway, and indicated to stop and wait for his prey. From where they waited, they could keep surveillance on King George Square car park where Bear’s orange Charger was parked.
Waiting twenty minutes with no contact, Bear finally decided that they should call it a night and head back to his car. They walked out of the alleyway and crossed the street to the car park.
Brownie called out "There they are, walking past the American Book Shop across the road.” Bear and his mates stood around a corner, down a ramp at the first level of the car park. The ramp spiralled down seven levels with no other vehicle exit.
Four bloodied skinheads entered the heavily lit car park as Bear jumped out in front of them, screaming out, "OK bastards, I'm gunna show what a modern warrior would do to you arseholes."
Like cornered animals, they stood motionless. Bear started poking their mob leader in his chest to get a response. He didn't want to throw the first punch, instead, raising both arms, then, like a giant grizzly bear, he shredded and ripped the shirt off his prey.
At that moment, laughter could be heard at the car park entrance. Two constables stood watching what was happening. LP and Brownie had also spotted the police entering the King George Square underground car park.
The laughter stopped suddenly as a voice yelled out "You've got one minute to get in your cars and leave. Otherwise, two paddy wagons are waiting outside to take you all to the city watch house.”
The constables stood to attention as the Sergeant in charge stood utterly silent, waiting for his command to be heeded.
Bear looked over to LP and Brownie, saying “That’s a reasonable request.”
They got in to Bear’s V8 Charger, giving a couple of revs that echoed down throughout the car park. With wheels screeching and smokin’ they drove out onto Adelaide Street.
LP said, “Look over there. Sarg wasn’t bluffing.” Two paddy wagons were indeed awaiting them.
Bear said "That’s a good story, I like that one. Pity the cops aren't as reasonable now as back then. These days they'd book ya or throw you in jail over almost anything.”
Several minutes later Brownie returned, with a two metre high marijuana plant covered in flower heads. He had literally pulled it, roots and all, out of the ground.
"What took you so long?" Bear asked.
“It was a little cramped were I ended up. Took a wrong turn, but it's all Ok now. Let's get out of here.” He replied
They motored back the way they had come. LP had placed the plant under the boat's flooring. If they were stopped by fisheries or water police and the plant was found, they'd be in the lockup for New Year's Eve.
They arrived back at the boat ramp under cover of darkness. LP climbed out, ran across to his vehicle and backed it over to retrieve his boat.
Bear opened the front passenger door and climbed in. Brownie sat in the back seat, keeping an eye on the boat as it was pulled from the water.
Brownie asked LP about last New Year’s Eve. "Have you figured out what was meant by saying that ice would cover the land for thirty days?"
LP replied “My interpretation is that it had something to do with a severe winter in the northern hemisphere. Major blackouts would follow throughout the north for up to thirty days. Even so, it could be something else."
"What do you mean?" Brownie asked anxiously.
"If what happened in 1859 is repeated, that would be a worse case scenario. The fact is, a solar flare that occurred in the late sixties has decayed back into the sun. Like a lava lamp bubble rising to become another solar flare, the second largest ever recorded. In the past, that occurrence would not have raised an eye brow.”
“However, now that we are dependent on satellite communications and power generation, things have changed. If they were knocked out, planes and ships could not navigate. Mobile phones, computers and the like would fail. Cities of the world would come to a standstill. Panic would set in, as police and emergency services try to restore order.”
Brownie looked shocked, shaking his head in disbelief. He said, "What can be done?"
LP replied "Hopefully, the power grids have been upgraded. New circuit breakers needed to be installed in old transformers. That's the weak link that needed to be fixed."
Brownie said, “I'll go back to the mountain and ask for help from my dreamtime ancestors.”
"Wishful thinking there Brownie. That worked once, but you had help on the mountain that day," LP said.
Ten minutes later, they were back at LP's house cleaning up their catch. Bear walked over to an outdoor bench to scale and gut his monster fish.
Brownie lent a hand, taking the bucket of mud crabs over to the bench where Bear was. He turned the bucket on its side, revealing two claw snapping mud crabs rearing up. He grabbed his shovel and quickly pushed it through the middle of each crab’s hard back shell, killing them instantly.
This was how he prepared crab for cooking. Brownie considered it far more humane than boiling them alive.
LP had water boiling on the stove upstairs and Brownie placed four cleaned pieces of crab into the boiling salt water.
Bear followed them upstairs, placing his prize fish on alfoil, already buttered, peppered and seasoned. He gave it a good squeeze of lemon juice and wrapped it up before placing it in LP's oven.
Ingrid turned from watching TV and said "Smells good. About time you guys did some cooking. Why not make it a habit, instead of only at your barbies?” The guys grinned as Brownie replied "We are hunters and gatherers. We won't be making this a habit."
Seven minutes later, Bear's crabs were cooked, the shells changing from a dark green to orange. He removed them from the boiling hot water with tongs and placed them on to a plate to cool. Bear grabbed three coldies from the top shelf of the fridge, twisting the tops off and handing them around.
After knocking down a stubby each, Bear opened the oven. As he removed his prize catch, an aroma filled the air, with flavours that made everyone's mouths water.
He placed his Grunter Bream and the mud crab pieces on the outdoor table. Like vultures the guys swooped, devouring everything in sight.
As they stood around the table, Bear said, “Anyway, where's Mason? I thought he'd be here."
LP replied, “No, I spoke to him on the phone this morning. His night shift staff, and their fellow Masonic brethren, wanted him to celebrate New Year together, so he won’t be here. Even if he wanted to, flood waters would stop him from making it up to us. I explained to him what needed to be done at midnight, and he agreed to be ready to download."
"You know I went back to New Zealand six weeks ago?"
“Yeah, and?” Bear said.
“Well, it's been thirty-six years since I was last there. An old photo of me taken back then, standing on a mountain looking pensive, got me stirred up to head back over the ditch and have another photo taken again in the same position.”
“Back in August, Virgin airlines offered internet flight tickets that were less than the cost of taxes, so I booked two return flights to Christchurch for a seven day holiday. On the second last day, we drove to a helicopter pad, and Blair our pilot, took us up the mountain.”
“The reason was to take another photo in the same position, looking in to same direction – bit of an ego thing, I figured.”
“Not long after returning from Christchurch, I realised there was one more thing to do with the scroll to complete the sequence. That was to download and save.” LP said
Bear, now understanding what LP wanted to do, weighed up the situation and asked himself a question. Was the triangular configuration coincidence or design? Bear wasn’t taking any chances.
He planned that, after the download, he would fire off Kato’s last batch of fireworks. Those mortars should light up the night sky. He got a kick out of blowing up things.
Everything was now in place for midnight. Brownie, LP and Kato's family and friends were arriving to celebrate the old year and welcome the New Year in. While everyone was arriving, Bear slipped out the back and down to his house to check on the bathroom renovation. He also wanted to visit his gun safe that was hidden behind a wall in the built in wardrobe.
He walked up three steps onto a wide open verandah and went through to the bedroom. He opened a large wardrobe door and removed a back wall panel to reveal the gun safe. Bear took out his licensed pistol and shotgun. He carried both weapons for hunting and protection when riding his bush bike on outback properties, and had modified and shortened the barrel of the shotgun, finding it safer.
Placing the pistol in the back of his red board shorts under his jacket, he wrapped his shotgun in a towel and started walking back to LP's holiday house.
Bear slipped up the stairs and quietly down the hallway to the main bedroom. He placed both weapons under LP's bed and rejoined the celebrations by opening LP's cooler and pulling out a six pack of coldies to hand them around.
Over laughter, talking, and the beach house juke box blaring out Jimmy Barnes’s gravelly voice, Bear picked up on a noise that was out of place. It sounded like a helicopter overhead. Outside, looking out over the balcony, he saw nothing unusual, only low lying dark storm clouds.
He turned and walked inside, past the juke box pounding out lyrics. Suddenly over the blaring music there was a loud bang as glass shattered downstairs. He looked down the stairwell to see several men dressed in black wearing balaclavas and carrying weapons. In single file, they started cautiously moving up the stairs unannounced.
Without thinking, Bear’s survival instincts kicked in. He took three quick steps, grabbed hold of the juke box and pulled it across to the stairs. He raised his left leg and gave the juke box an almighty boot, sending it catapulting down over their New Year's Eve party gate crashers.
If he were bowling, he would have marked himself down for a strike and scored maximum points. As Bear turned, he saw that those on the balcony had been unaware of what was happening inside until the juke box music stopped.
He yelled out "We've got trouble, be prepared."
As confident as ever, he took five quick steps back to LP's bedroom, then knelt down as though praying.
Reaching down and pulling out his shot gun from under LP's bed, he unrolled it from the towel, holding it with his right hand, and with his left arm grabbed his pistol. He pushed it down the back of his board shorts, then walked back out to a crowded balcony to silence.
Laughter, talking and music had stopped. All eyes were fixed on what Bear was holding. He yelled out, “Everybody inside! Brownie, out the back door now. Get down to Kato's place for the download".
LP quickly asked, “What about George’s laptop?”
Bear replied with urgency in his voice. “Forget about his old laptop, it won’t work. The reception drops out too often down there.”
Out of the darkness, four ropes dropped from above, followed by armed black-clad men, faces hidden by balaclavas.
Bear didn't hesitate, shouting out, "Take this you bastards!" He discharged each barrel and reloaded at lightening speed. As four sets of eyes looked down, their ropes snapped, sending them plummeting into the thorned rose bushes below.
Not knowing where, or how high, the helicopter was, Bear picked up one of Kato's mortars that was to be part of the midnight fireworks.
He placed it in the firing cylinder, angled between two hand rails and lit the fuse.
With a sizzle and a bang, exploding fireworks broke through the low cloud in a show that a pyrotechnic would be proud of. The light revealed a chopper positioned above LP's holiday house.
Bear was about to pick up his shot gun and give the pilot a warning blast. Suddenly the swirling blades headed in a southerly direction and soon could be heard landing over at Teewah Beach’s helipad, which was the only way in and out in an emergency at high tide.
Jack Herbertsin had orchestrated this clandestine unsanctioned mission for his own personal benefit, now he had to call it off.
He had failed to retrieve George's laptop which contained the evidence that would incriminate him in shooting George. Intel from those undercover cops didn’t help.
Little did he know that if his men had walked in to Bear's house, they would have found George's laptop on the kitchen bench.
Jack's men were instructed to pull back to the helipad for evacuation, and were told to destroy the log books of their mission. There was to be no record of this incident.
Everyone suddenly turned their attention to the radio. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six….” The countdown had started. LP was ready to press enter and save the scroll “….five, four, three, two, one!”
He pressed enter and then said “Let's not forget zero. Without one and zero this could not happen.” Voices yelled out “Happy New Year...Happy New Year...”
Brownie, who had earlier stripped his stolen plant, had the leaves and heads drying in Kato's oven. He removed them after downloading the scroll as instructed by LP.
He used six rollie papers to make up a giant joint with cut up leaves, heads and resin, making it a potent reefer. One puff would get anyone stoned.
He walked back up to the others and showed LP and Bear what he wanted to share. Bear grabbed the joint from Brownie's hand, stuck it between his lips and lit it, taking a deep puff before handing it around.
LP suddenly said “I think I just saw George at your place, Bear.”
“You're seeing things again. You can't see my place from here. It's the joint mate. It's good shit."
“I think I saw something too" Brownie said in agreement.
“Right, I'm going to finish this, and we're going down to my place to check out what's happening down there” Bear said.
All three walked along a sandy track to Bear's old beach house, laughing over nothing along the way.
They looked around for any sign of movement, before walking up three stairs and entering the kitchen.
Looking over to George’s laptop on the bench, they saw the scroll saved as a screen saver.
LP asked "How did that happen? There should be no reception here. The only person not at my place was you, Brownie. Did you come in here and download this?"
He replied "No, definitely not, I was too busy rolling a big fat joint after I pressed enter to save the scroll."
“All right” Bear said “Check where it was saved, that might give us a clue." He pressed enter and opened up the file.
They all started to read, “Hi guys. Couldn’t stay long. Your triangular configuration allowed time to fold in, creating a three dimensional portal to open up a crack in antimatter. Like the time line markers did at the ancient Bora rings.”
“That gave me enough time to let you know I'm doing all right, and to enlighten what is to be achieved when the image and words of the Scroll are combined.”
“It will allow you to connect to the greatness within that will go back to the creator, and at that moment you will become immortal.”
“The scroll is saved, knowledge and wisdom is at your finger tips.”
“Equinox, the end is the beginning. Life renewed.”
“Omega and Alpha.”