Aussie Impasse

Copyright © 2019 by Kevin Johnson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 01/28/2019

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Chapter 1     Susan’s Accident and Aramid’s Bleeding Demise.

Chapter 2     Susan’s Operation and Alexis’s Plans.

Chapter 3     Dieter’s Amputation and Discovery of Planet Troy.

Chapter 4     Space Disease, Welcome Back and Winter Olympics for Susan.

Chapter 5     Assisting Dudgeon Rebels.

Chapter 6     Olympic Ski Resort and Russian President’s

Damaged Submarine.

Chapter 7     Korean Winter Games and Fedorov’s Objectives.

Chapter 8     Interplanetary Conference and Encounter with Fedorov.

Chapter 9     Attempt to Capture Fedorov and Mind Illusions.

Chapter 10   The Final Impasse and Mountain Ski Chase.

Chapter 11   Finding Fedorov in Hawaii, Accidental Volcano and He Avoids Capture.

Chapter 12   Trapping Fedorov and Two Bad Wizards and Their Demise.

Chapter 13   Economic Downturn and the Professor Becomes a Treat.

Chapter 14   The Professor Shows His Hand and Serious Mine Explosion.

Chapter 15   Chase to Get Professor Farek and His Escape to Genesis.

Chapter 16   Farek Relocates to Dudgeon and His encounter with a Wild Boar.

Chapter 17   Farek and Sojans Tricks Backfire and They Need to Regroup in China.

Chapter 18   Discovering the Realm of Xinjiang and Massive Illusions.

Chapter 19   Compiling a War Team and Another Attempt to Capture Farek.

Chapter 20   Relocation to Troy and Carmen Born.

Chapter 21   Attack on Farek and Sojans Escape Back to China.

Chapter 22   The Chase After Farek and His Ultimate Demise.

Chapter 23   Young Genesis Wizards and Past President’s Plane Crash.

Chapter 24   Past President’s Funeral, Staff Changes and Eventual Retirement.

FOREWORD

This is the last book of a trilogy; the first is Aussie Pilot, the second Aussie Know-How, and the final book of the series Aussie Impasse. All books are pure fantasy and include some spectacular deductions, magic, science fiction, and illusionary events that many young Australian boys dream of well after they reach maturity. The merged happenings, in most instances, have been created by other writers in literature, film, or television and are strung together to form the exciting fictitious life of a hero and his friends.

The books had been growing in the writer’s head since he was a young adolescent and, over time, had been progressively developed, regurgitated, and reinvented. As the writer discovered them, they became merged until now, where it would seem they were no longer recognisable.

The Aussie Pilot story begins with David Granger as a newly qualified RAAF pilot who experiences several war events, during which he has met his first wife, a navy surgeon. With her assistance, he also becomes a surgeon; but feeling imprisoned by the medical role, they decide to purchase land in Gove, Northern Territory, Australia, to develop an international market garden. He discovers Orack, an ancient computer, and meets the newly appointed US president; and together, they attempt to bring peace in the Middle East. David’s wife is assassinated, and he returns to Geraldton, Western Australia, where he surprisingly meets Pam, a secret witch princess. They marry, and with the assistance of Orack, they recover the planet Atlantis. In the end, they enter a space war and save Earth from the vicious Dudgeon alien, the Supreme Commander.

Aussie Know-How, the sequel, continues with some of David Granger’s life experiences, international events, the business tycoons who seek to rule not only Earth but also the three other nearby planets, and several akin adventures. By accessing the ancient magic of Merlin and Morgana, the ability to change dimension, and the speed for space travel, the hero – together with his family, friends, and Orack – defeats the bad guys. And towards the end, the immediate galaxy has become a far better place. Our hero contemplates retirement, so at this point, Aussie Know-How concludes.

The third book of the series completes the story and hopefully concludes an enjoyable reading experience, a mental escape, or perhaps even a pleasing fantasy for the patient and forgiving readers who have inexplicably discovered my work.

It is my sincere hope that when you all close the last page, you have a pleasant smile on your face and quietly say, ‘That was a satisfying read. I quite enjoyed the entire journey.’

Again, my heartfelt thanks to my wife, Judy; my children, Michelle, Vanessa, and David; and their children, Matthew, Benjamin, Finn, Aislinn, Caelan, Neve, and Taya, for providing the encouragement, support, and love that I needed so much to make me finish what I just had to start.

So, book 3 begins.

CHAPTER 1

David woke at 5.30 a.m., got out of bed, and scratched his head. Still in bed was his wife, Pam. Rather than disturb her, he rose and stood at the window overlooking the magnificent bay lying in front of their house in Paihia, North Island, New Zealand. Dawn was rising, the sun not yet visible, but streaks of yellow sunlight were starting at the horizon and streaming skywards, only to bounce off the voluminous intermittent clouds, making those not illuminated look dark and ominous. There were two cruise ships and three container ships at anchor, and off to the side, he could see one of the floatplanes of his friend Hemi alongside its floating jetty. He would never get tired of looking at that view, especially first thing in the morning.

Pam stirred, opened one eye, and saw her husband leaning over, about to wake her. She grinned with that special smile of hers, and he melted. God, I love this woman, he thought. She took his offered hand, lightly threw her legs over the side of the bed, sprang up, and kissed his nose. Then she was gone on her way to the bathroom. Without further comment, they each changed into their jogging gear and raced out the front door, slamming it shut behind them. They were very happy, and now that he was retired (only for a week), things were much slower and decidedly less active.

They sped effortlessly over their habitual pathway, and slowly, it became lighter as the sun rose. They passed several of the usual with a wave and good cheer, and as they ran, more and more people were emerging from their houses. As they neared home, the streets became busy, and things took on a normality about them. They raced each other for the last 100 metres, and David let Pam beat him to the front door as he retrieved his keys from his pocket. Lightly puffing, they sat at the kitchen table while they contemplated the day’s events, if any, now that he was retired.

There were several things they intended to do today; one was to visit Orack’s new spaceship under construction in the cavern. The concept excited them both, and as the ship was only a couple of weeks off completion, they were particularly interested to see the latest internal fit-out that had been generated from Zavier’s computer rather than Orack’s upgraded old files.

They showered in their separate bathrooms and casually dressed. It was going to be a nice warm day, maybe twenty-eight degrees. David suggested they have breakfast at the cafe down the road and then zap to the cavern.

Suddenly, David had a scary feeling; he felt sweaty as if he had caught a wog. He looked at Pam, and she too was feeling strange. She was visibly shaking. Something awful had happened to one of the family, and they needed to know who.

Pam telepathically called Robert, David’s son, in the cavern. David called his daughter, Susan, in Sydney, Australia; and immediately, he received her in pain. By telepathy, he asked where she was. With great effort, she told him. They checked if they had things they needed and immediately, hand in hand, zapped to where Susan lay on the ground. There were several push bikes down and colourfully clad bike riders all being attended by passers-by. They said ambulances were on their way.

David advised he was a doctor, and both he and Pam went beside Susan. They could see that her right leg was completely crushed, her hip was bleeding, and her crash helmet was lying smashed nearby. While David worked on his daughter, Pam checked the other riders. Two looked seriously hurt, but the other three riders, she considered, would be OK.

David worked feverishly. He knew what had to be done. He cut off her leggings and tended the wounds. He applied a tourniquet to the upper leg and braced the crushed lower leg. He noted the hip and shoulder injuries and then braced her bleeding head. Just then, the ambulance driver touched his shoulder and introduced himself. David stood away, and he let the medics take over.

David and Pam were distraught and crying, and shock was setting in. Susan was whisked away, and an overly loud, blaring siren gradually faded into the distance.

There were six riders in all, each hit by a car that did not stay at the scene. It was a black Toyota 4WD utility with four spotlights on the roof, long swaying whip aerial, and loud twin exhausts. They gave the licence number. The police were already tracking it down. They described the driver – in his early twenties, dark Middle Eastern complexion. He looked like he had purposely run the riders down.

David packed up his gear, took Pam’s hand, and walked away. After some distance, they zapped invisibly to the hospital just in time to see the ambulance stop at the emergency ward doors. They watched as Susan was taken into casualty; two nurses put her on a gurney, and she was gone inside the building.

David stopped Pam from following and intimated to just let the experts do what was necessary. Pam’s tears were pouring, and heavy sobbing began. She slumped in David’s arms and began shaking all over. Shock had set in. Susan and Robert were David’s children, but there was no doubt Pam was their stepmom, and she felt every emotion as if they were her own.

After a short time, she began to calm down, and they agreed she should go home and wait for further advice. He would go to the scene, ask around, and then go to the police for more answers. He would return to her when he knew what had happened. They could use their telepathic skill to communicate when necessary.

The scene was still busy with ambulances and police tending the last two of the six competing riders. They told of how they were riding in a bunch halfway through their practice course when this idiot revved his car to make his exhaust growl, crossed the median strip, and drove side-on into the bunch as it passed a metre-high retaining wall. He then reversed over a couple of downed bikes and drove off at speed, squealing tyres as he went.

David listened to many explanations and tried to reason why such an act would take place. It had to be purposeful; it had to pre-planned. It wasn’t meant to kill. It was meant to maim. All six girls were in the women’s cross-country Olympic cycling squad, practising for the games to be held in Tokyo next year. Why somebody would wish to maim his daughter kept running through his brain.

Susan’s husband, Richard, was working on the planet Atlantis and – at the time of the accident – was recreationally playing in a band, entertaining some 2,000 people in a mass gig. When advised of the accident, he demanded an immediate return, which Orack arranged.

Having considered all things, David zapped to Orack in the cavern, who was awaiting his presence. Pam went back to their home in Paihia. David passed on all that he had learned and gave his questions as well. Orack said he would work on it and get back to them both. David went home a very sad and disillusioned father.

Pam made tea and biscuits, and they waited for the hospital to phone. The longer the wait, the more they feared disaster not just for Susan but also for the five other girls. Eventually, they were told two of the girls were seriously scratched but OK. Two had internal injuries, broken bones, and abrasions, but two had serious injuries and were still being operated on. The police were holding the bikes as evidence; three were write-offs, and three could be repaired. The nurse phoned at 6 p.m. saying their daughter was out of theatre and was resting in room 706. They would need to check with the floor nurse before they could see her. The nurse did not realise the number she had called was in New Zealand and not in Sydney.

To David, from his work experience, hospitals were not nice places. The pallid painted walls, the high ceilings, the wide corridors, the waiting at the nurse’s desk, the smell – all were real put-offs. As they walked to her room, the nurse tried to prepare them for what they were about to see. The lower part of Susan’s right leg had to be amputated, she had a cracked hip bone, and her shoulder blade (collarbone) was broken in two places.

Pam stopped short, hand over mouth, which was emitting a loud shout of horror. David’s heart sank, and he became bewildered. The nurse waited, showed concern, and said, ‘Don’t worry too much, they do marvellous things with artificial limbs nowadays.’ That made things worse. David hugged Pam and made her accept what was said. Slowly, arm in arm, they approached the door.

Susan appeared to be asleep, leaning back on pillows in an almost sitting-up position. She didn’t see or hear her father and stepmother enter. They stared down at their little girl, their now married girl, and cried. It was by telepathy that Susan awoke and saw them whimpering beside the bed. Seeing them there the way they were, she too began to cry. David broke away from Pam, put his arms around his daughter and kissed her forehead. Then Pam did the same.

David drew up chairs, and they sat beside her. They didn’t know what to say to one another. Eventually, David asked what she remembered of the accident. Susan replied, ‘All I remember is a loud noise and a black thing crashing into the side of my bike. Immediately, I experienced excruciating pain. And the next thing, I was entangled in bikes and other people. Lots of onlookers were rushing around, shouting, and waving their arms.’ She remembered seeing her parents both standing in the crowd nearby and being taken off in an ambulance but nothing else of the hit-and-run. They had all been head down, pushing hard, trying to beat their previous times and one another. Susan had been on the outside but in the middle of the pack when the car hit her leg.

The nurse came in and called time. Pam told Susan of Richard and that he was on his way to be with her. She lazily replied that they had been conversing telepathically and had told her, ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s you I love, not a flashy ankle, and I would be with you as soon as I could.’ Then as if that was all she wanted, Susan put on that Granger smile and closed her eyes. They shut the door quietly. Outside the building, they found a sheltered spot and zapped home.

The next day, the media was full of the accident, and some made headlines of those injured. Hemi and Huuhana (their neighbours) came over and stayed awhile. Hemi said he would do some investigation of his own.

The first week of retirement was not very nice. They went back and forth to the hospital, and David did some study of prosthetics and amputees. There were some clinics in Australia that were well advanced in this area of patient rehabilitation, and many New Zealand doctors were advancing their knowledge. There were many stories of Olympic athletes and others achieving great feats using man-made arms, legs, you name it. The blade runners from Western Australia and South Africa were examples. David had to give Susan something to believe in. He didn’t want her giving up and leading a disadvantaged life, not his daughter.

David and Pam were invited to Orack’s office for the usual 5 p.m. Friday social, so they accepted. Richard was back and had been with his wife most of the time, and the rest of the clan were in good cheer. Nicky and Brett (Huuhana’s children) were representing Earth in an interplanetary swimming championship next month, and several of the crew were also participating. Robert – always doing something different – was training for the Winter Olympics next year. He was considering the team sled race, as well as slalom and maybe one of the aerobatic events. He spent most of his spare time practising at the latest American slopes and used their coaches to the limit. It was a meeting place for all nationalities, and many became best friends.

After the get-together, there were a few questions on how the ‘senior couple’ were now, but most were respectful of the retirees. Orack mentioned what facts had been put together concerning the accident and that they knew who the driver was. It would seem someone had hired the driver – an Aramid Reza, son of Hamid Reza, the brother of the assassin of David’s first wife – to seriously damage the members of the Granger family. He had been approached and offered money, airfare, the black 4WD, many virgin wives, and accommodation.

Seeking a new life away from the Middle East, he chose to undertake the request. He chose the most vulnerable of the Granger family as his first target. Now he was in jail and awaiting a court case. Things didn’t go as he had planned. Now he realised just what he had done. Australian values were different from those of his native country. Now he had been arrested and would go to court. He prayed to Allah for a swift death, so he can be with his twenty promised virgin concubines.

At a suitable time, around 3 a.m. David zapped to the cell of Aramid. The man was not fazed by his sudden appearance. He knew magic, and he often practised trickery – his whole family were wizards. He was, however, concerned when David’s power nullified his own. He looked but felt nothing when David appeared to cut off his finger and then another each time he refused to answer David’s questions. This person who, he knew, had ruined his family’s traditional position shouldn’t be here.

Mentally, Aramid could shut out the pain he was experiencing but nothing else. He was unable to zap away. He looked at his stubby wrist and saw blood oozing down his arm; he zapped and zapped but couldn’t repair his hand. Then he realised this man was more powerful than he had previously experienced; he had powers that he was unable to defeat. No matter what he did, he realised that he just couldn’t win.

He screamed as loud as he could, but no sound was emitted. The pool of blood was growing, so he began to panic; the throbbing was excruciating. He was too young to die. This man had killed his uncle and his father and had his family expelled from their traditional lands. The family had lost all a 600-year reign.

Now David had beaten him. Aramid had been too casual. He should have burned him on sight. He could feel the life bleeding out of his body. With one hand, he ripped off his shirt and used it as a tourniquet, trying to block the blood flow. He had lost too many fingers; the blood flow was too fast. He had to sit down; he fell to his knees. He tried to hold his arm upwards, but it was too heavy. As it fell, so did he, and he lay in his own pool of blood, four fingers and a thumb lying on the floor just next to him. A cold chill came over him; he had lost too much blood.

David placed the knife sheath around Aramid’s leg under his jeans. He cleaned the knife, placed it in Aramid’s left hand and dripped more blood over the whole hand. David looked in disgust. He had cut off his right fingers as he had crushed his daughter’s right leg.

The scene was realistic: Aramid had committed suicide by cutting off his fingers until all blood left his body. He was ashamed of damaging all six riders rather than just one. ‘What have I done?’ When the news reached his family and business boss, they were ashamed also; it was another family failure. The Grangers had won again.

Slowly, Aramid watched David work, but he could do nothing; not one part of his body reacted to his mind powers. ‘How could this be?’ he queried. His eyes grew tired; he didn’t care anymore. The pain had gone, and he felt himself drifting off. He would be with Allah soon. Ah, those twenty promised virgin brides.

David checked the room once more, and then invisibly, he tapped on the warden’s cell desk alarm, waking him after a long shift sleep. The warden immediately thought, Breakout, and then slowed down. He saw the cell light and radioed his partner to check things out. Sure enough, Aramid had suicided. They sounded the alarm, and people began running everywhere. David zapped back to Orack and released the news. Orack didn’t approve, but he said nothing.

David went home a very quiet man. It would be days before he went to visit his daughter again. Meanwhile, Richard and Pam had persistently visited Susan and tried to make her happy. Zoey and all her friends had said hello, but she remained obstinate. She was now a one-legged unemployable who had to sit at home and watch TV all day. She wouldn’t be able to do any of the things she dreamed of; she was now an encumbrance. She wondered how long her friends would remain; she wondered how long Richard would still want her.

David sat at home in his music room most days, reading up on the recuperation of amputees and, from a medical viewpoint, how to use prosthetics and the component parts that allowed leg function. One day Pam told David that Susan had inoperable damage to her hip, and although the doctors knew the problem, the damage was too close to her nervous system, and any slight error would culminate in her damaged leg becoming numb, no movement at all. David just could not believe this and stomped around the house in a foul mood. Later, he went into the hospital and asked to see Susan’s charts and her doctor’s notes and conclusions.

He was in the office of the matron for some time. She knew Jenny Williams, the matron of the Gove Hospital, very well, and she looked up David’s medical records at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. She recognised David for what he had been and allowed him access to whatever he needed. Pretty soon they both came to the opinion that an operation was possible, less risky than previously assessed, but it was unlikely the local doctors would attempt it. She allowed David to study, revise, and practise provided he did nothing until the hospital board approved him as a surgeon. David thought of zapping a few things but knew better. Eventually, he weakened and visited his daughter.

It was about 2.30 p.m. The day was twenty-eight degrees with mild warmth, ten-knot breezes, and high spotted clouds. Orack’s computer had worked overtime, and after review with Orack, they worked out how to rebuild the hip and attach a personally made lower leg so that Susan could learn to walk; and later they would attach the latest prosthetic foot, so she would be back to as near normal as possible. Earlier they had reset her broken collarbone, and that would take six weeks to heal.

David had sat in the hospital gardens watching patients doing whatever, and he knew he could fix his daughter’s problems. But it had to be her decision, no force, just love and assistance. There was always the chance of a stuff-up, but it could be minimised.

He knocked on her door and asked if he could come in. She didn’t answer. He called again, and in a weak voice, she asked him to go away. With that, he got angry and said, ‘Jeez, Susan, you must listen to me. I’ve done all this study, and I think we can help. I need you to listen at least.’

She started crying, so he just went in and sat beside her. With tears in their eyes, they both looked at each other and held hands. ‘You OK?’ he asked. She slowly nodded.

He began by explaining the damage that had occurred and went on using the X-rays to explain difficult things and finally the possible outcome. He concluded by saying, ‘Aramid, the driver by the way, severed all his right-hand fingers and died from blood loss on the floor of his cell. Just thought you might like to know, that’s all.’

What he said stopped her dead. She looked at her father and immediately got a twinkle back in her eye. That beautiful face is just like her mum’s, Helen, he recalled. She knew her dad well, and she loved him so much. She knew Aramid would never have suicided and certainly not had the guts to cut off his fingers and bleed to death. Immediately, she surmised that her dad had done this for her. Wow, what a thing to do. To David, the face he was looking at was so much like her mum’s that he was just full of emotion; and to look at them both as they sat together, it was easy to feel the deep affection radiating between them.

‘OK’, she said, wiping her eyes and straightening as if to make an announcement, ‘you say you can fix me up. I guess we had better try. What do you want me to do?’ David couldn’t help himself; he burst out crying, snivelling rather, and crushed his daughter’s hand. He stood up, took her head in his hands, and kissed her head. Then he sat down and explained what he wanted to do.

Smiling at her dad, she said with total simplicity, ‘OK, let’s do it.’ She watched him leave the room. God, I am so lucky to have a dad like that. Fix me maybe, but to love as he does, wow!

She lay back on the pillows and remembered many things, the special moments they shared. Then she thought of Richard and became excited to tell him the news. She was going to be able to run again maybe. Then a sad thought hit her. Maybe not cycle in the Olympics but maybe, like my brother, ski in the Winter Games.

CHAPTER 2

It took some time for Orack to establish who had hired Aramid to avenge the Reza family loss. It was not a family member; they were all too busy attempting to reinstate the family fortune and regain the political dominance that they had enjoyed for 600 years. It was well known that they were not physical fighters – they were behind-the-scenes manipulators; they were skilled in blackmail and illusion creation. They plotted and schemed before they implemented any action. Orack concluded that it had to be a high-profile business mogul who needed to gain access to himself. Otherwise, why the calculated manoeuvre? Any hired assassin could do such a job without going to the extent of engaging a young Reza family member.

And to maim, not kill – that concerned Orack. It concerned everybody. Who had been maimed in past conflicts that he could recall, one that might have a revengeful bent? There was the American whom Zoey encountered. There was the Dudgeon master who used the Supreme Commander to do his bidding. Most of the others were dead. The Genesis people were not aggressors. Besides, they didn’t seek power; they could zap anything they needed. He concluded the party must be either the American or an unknown Atlantean he had yet to discover.

A breakthrough came when Cameron and Dale (Susan and Robert’s long-time friends) were checking some large money transfers and came across several transactions shifting wealth from Atlantis to Earth. Initially, there were four major items; then after that lead, they discovered fifty or so additional relatively minor withdrawals, all amounting to a massive sum. Among the transactions were a dozen of Zavier’s ex-companies, and tracing others, the list included almost every major mining exporter currently still viable.

It translated to mean that the purchaser employed most of the world’s staff and was involved in 60 per cent of all of Earth’s business transactions. This was big business. It was all power. No government could stand against such wealth. Several governments combined could not stand against such power. Orack wondered if the money was real. Being ex-Atlantean, it might be zapped money; and in that case, the business mogul could be an unknown, particularly as no history of such a person could be traced. They advised the past president and his team as well as the United Nations and the World Bank.

An answer to why the accident was ordered had to be discovered. David killing Aramid was unfortunate. Orack sent Zoey to enquire around the apartment that Aramid had been renting. The building was a four-storey modern 7-year-old complex of twenty-eight two-bedroom similar units located to the east side of the city, where a zoning change encouraged many similar complexes to be developed around the same time. The area was affected by a dense population, ground-floor coffee shops and small restaurants, and heavy traffic most times of the day. Flashing colourful neon signs were everywhere during the night.

Zoey was dressed to kill. Her body was lean, fit, and perfect. She