‘If any of those boxes sayNT Tourism, I’m putting it in my audit report underReasons I Deserve a Pay Rise, a Desk, and a Pack of Barbecue Shapes.’
‘You’re spiralling,’ muttered Finn, beside her.
‘I’m just adapting,’ Taryn shot back.‘It’s a skill.You should try it sometime.’
Finn’s mouth twitched.Just barely.
She exhaled heavily.The fear, the nausea, the need for sardines, and the what-ifs—still there.But quieter now, as she focused on the target.Even if it meant taking down this mess one dodgy nappy box at a time.
She scrolled back to her laptop, watching the live satellite map stutter and refresh.‘Inbound jet is twenty minutes out,’ she said.‘Quarry landing site is hot.It’s all happening, peoples.’
Her fingers flew across the keyboard, switching between feeds from the drones, comms, body cams, flight paths.‘You might want to warn Romy to keep her drones below the radar ceiling, Sergeant.We need them for eyes on, but we can’t spook that other jet’s approach.And tell Stone to stay tucked in below that escarpment.’
Finn’s jaw clenched.‘Listen, Fed, we’ve been watching this place for a month.Thanks to Romy’s motion cams, that are normally set up to catch crocodile nests and swamp buffalo, we’ve repurposed them for this.’
‘I thought those were just for documentaries.’
‘They are.But they also pick up human movement.We wired half of them into the quarry’s light towers.’He gestured toward her screen.‘Craig’s got Romy’s GoPro.Porter’s got his vest cam, and Romy will have her drone footage.If this goes to court, we’ll have every angle covered.’
Taryn arched a brow.‘What is this?A sting or an outback fashion show?You’ve got more cameras on this than the paparazzi barging in on a red-carpet event in Milan.’
Finn gave her a look.Clearly unimpressed.
She grinned.‘Go on.Say you missed me.’
He snorted.‘Like a busted boot misses a bindi-eye seed.’
‘Charming,’ she drawled.‘Please, don’t get all emotional on me now.’
‘Just focus, Fed.’
‘I’m trying.But you haven’t even made me a coffee that tastes like mud since I got back.Clearly, something’s missing in my life.’
His mouth twitched.Not a smile—but close.
‘You’re terrible at affection.’
‘And you’re still talking.’
‘You’re welcome.’
Finn narrowed his eyes, the corner of his mouth fighting the need to curl.‘Keep it up and I’ll put you on car wash duty at the police station.That’s every vehicle.Including Craig’s horse truck.’
Taryn gasped, hand over heart.‘You monster.Those things haven’t seen water since water was invented.’
Finn just shook his head and muttered, ‘See, this is why I drink my coffee alone.’
She grinned, her eyes flicking to the incoming radar image of the jet.
Then something clicked.
All humour dropped as she watched Bob ease the truck toward the airstrip to wait for that jet.‘Wait… Something’s not right.’
‘What now?’
‘Why would Drew fly into the hot zone?He’s smarter than that.’On her laptop, she pulled up the Ag School conference site and crosschecked the speaker’s schedule, including the emails she had access too.Her breath caught.‘Look...Drew has cancelled the speech he was meant to give this afternoon.’
They needed to know where the head snake in a suit was at all times.And she’d spent all morning combing Drew’s emails, confirming that Bob and Red were headed to the quarry to meet the jet.
