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It was a temporary office, but they had been there for months now. Robinson Street in Dandenong, just up from the station. Upstairs in an office block. Even now they only used about half the floor. The rebellion was in its sixth month. Ruby was early thirties, with dark hair and thick black rimmed glasses. She glanced out the window. So quiet here. For the moment it was just Ruby and Noah in the office. Noah had the athletic good looks of a young executive. He like to dress well, neatly, as if it projected order over the chaos that filled the office. Noah looked he surfed a lot, but his looks came from long hours at the gym. Maybe it was the blonde hair.

A new government had been elected in a landslide only months ago. The populist new conservatives. Older voters were in the majority, and these guys dished it up big time. Pension rises, benefits, you name it. Now that it was clear how to win elections, they had become shameless. The tyranny of demographics. Most voters were older, didn’t work. A policy to increase benefits was irresistible. The minority of workers who funded this lifestyle didn’t even figure in the political exchange. It was somehow assumed that they would quietly not rock the boat. To work in a city, but not to own even a part of it - to have this thrust in your face every day. Your rental somewhere in the outer suburbs, your journey into the city through the entrenched. That statement, that exclusion.

So the movement had been born. Almost in exile. Dandenong was a business district, but it was always second best. Or third best. Stratified. Know your place. Well, did you? Those that funded the rebellion had certainly had enough. It exploded. In weeks they had enough funding for years of operation. Which left them in this office, with a plan, and expectations from their supporters.

“I’ve had an approach, from a group.” He said.

“What group?”

“Business group. Some military. I think they are powerfully connected.”

“They want to donate? That’s good. ”

“I get the impression that it’s more than a donation, but they are very cautious. Want to meet with you.”

“Just me.”

“Yes.”

“They gave quite explicit instructions.”

“Meet in this warehouse so it can be targeted, that sort of thing?”

Noah sighed. Yes, it was hard to trust anyone.

“They have a boat. On Westernport. They want to meet on the boat.”

“Out in the open.”

“Think about it. We can watch the whole bay. It’s not a busy place. They can watch too. They say they can secure for 100km around.”

“How?”

“Some of them are military, they said. I didn’t get them to elaborate.”

Ruby had more questions, but thought better of it. No pain, no gain. If they really were offering something significant, then she had to take risks.

The car accelerated as they joined the Westernport highway. The main road south. Early morning. Heavy traffic going the other way. The extreme commuters. Live out in the sticks, leave home at 5am, work in the car for 3 hours. Check in at the office. Then do it again arriving home at 7pm. Her thoughts drifted back to teaching a classroom filled with adolescents. She smiled. Those moments through the fog, the drama, when it connected. When someone actually learned something. For no particular reason she recalled an unscheduled parent meeting. That tight feeling in the stomach. What were they going to complain about? They didn’t fit the profile. Didn’t look like pushy middle class climbers. Bullying? ‘We just want to thank you for all of your work with Eric. He’s never connected with school before.’

They swirled around a roundabout. She lurched to one side in the seat. Shook the daydream. This was a one way trip, wasn’t it? Rebel leader throws it in and takes a teaching post in Mildura? No. Nope.

As they pulled into Tooradin she linked her glasses to the drones. Split view. In her view she could take in straight ahead together with the overhead. She told herself that she should trust what she was hearing, that all clear meant just that. The open spaces made her jumpy.

Tooradin sat at the northern end of Westernport Bay. It was surrounded by housing estates, but it had never really shaken off its country town feel. A nondescript place that everyone drove through at high speed. Ruby approached the jetty, in the mangroves at a small creek. A tiny boat, a nervous fisherman. She smiled at him. Could imagine the windup Noah had given him. No, they hadn’t been tracked, no there wasn’t a government ambush. There was just this small boat puttering out into Westernport bay.

“Quite shallow is it? I’m Ruby.”

She extended her hand. His was rough, from an outdoor life.

“Max.”

“Ruby.”

“It’s very shallow. You have to know your way around. Know the tides.”

“Been doing this long?”

He smiled.

“Since I was a kid. It gets into your blood.”

She thought about that. The jetty was high above the mangroves, and she wondered whether they would be even able to navigate out. But she refrained from asking the obvious tourist question. He wouldn’t be getting the boat ready if they couldn’t make it. Early morning cold, with a slight mist of the water.

“I just have to check in.” She said

“Of course.”

Instinctively she walked up the other end of the jetty, to not be overheard. He just smiled again.

“Ok?” she asked Noah.

“It’s all good. Nothing on the radar.”

She was so used to working the city, where there were backups on backups. If things went pear shaped she could run, knew where to run. Nowhere to hide out here. Sometimes it required trust beyond trust. To jump into free space in the darkness after you have been told there is a net down there, but not knowing one way or the other. Noah could tell what she was thinking, and there was no way of reassuring her.

“Ok.” She said.

He had the boat ready, eased her over the edge and into the small cabin. Moving up front, he pulled the lever back, and they chugged out into the small channel. A few birds flew out from the mangroves.

“Southern most mangroves in the world.” He said as if by reflex, as he would for a group of tourists or day fishermen. Then cut the speech short. They motored through the channel in search of the open water. It was absolutely flat, almost reflective, with a slight ripple just breaking up the image. She sat back, taking it in. They had this whole bay, it seemed, to themselves. Turned slightly to the west, with French Island in front of them. On the other side of the bay the mainland stretched south, similar to this side with mangroves. No beach.

“What’s that over there?” she asked. Pointing to the jetty that stretched out on the shore, around from Tooradin, towards Stony Point.

“Gas terminal. It’s where the imported gas comes in.”

“I thought we exported gas?”

“We do. Some of it comes back.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

On another trip, another time, she would have been curious. It was the shipping equivalent of standing on a highway and watching the same type of freight go in both directions.

“We in the channel yet?” she asked

“Yes. You can see it’s a bit darker.”

“How deep is it?”

“Just enough for a supertanker.”

“It looks really shallow everywhere else.”

“The tide is coming in, so we will be ok. You have to watch it carefully.”

“Get stranded?”

“Yes, you can get stuck high and dry.”

“You?”

Again the grin.

“Not since I was ten years old.”

The boat followed the narrow channel. Just off from Hastings. She was concerned that they had not sighted the other boat, but in the distance she could see another larger boat coming towards them. The luxury cruiser still fitted easily in the channel.

“I’m General Adam Kowalski.” A tall, blonde man, looking just shy of fourty. He smiled. “This is Xiuming , from the business group.” He was similar age, looking serious.

Adam continued

“Shallow bay this. We came around from Mount Martha. I’ve got an apartment there, and we keep this tied up there. I don’t get out on it much. Rich boy’s toys, as they say.”

Ruby couldn’t help but ask, again.

“Why here?”

“Look around, great lines of sight. We can get support from the naval base at Cerberus. They can give us great coverage.”

“I’m relieved, and so grateful that you’ve both come.” She hesitated. Did she need to persuade them?

Adam pointed towards the shore.

“You can see the houses over there.” Ruby could just make out the edge of a house roof. “My childhood home. It’s not a flash area, Jack's Beach. We used to run up and down that beach, just up from the jetty. It was paradise. Just us kids, and the sea. The mangroves.”

“Long way from there to this boat. It’s not a fishing tinny, is it?” He just smiled. No it wasn’t.

“Seems a long time ago.”

“So why do you want to see the government gone?” Ruby asked, cutting to the chase.

“It’s so peaceful here. Must be nice to outsource your fighting to people like me. We fight the Pacific War way out there.” He pointed in the general direction of north, then continued.

“It’s suppressed, most of it. Because it takes place far out at sea. The government makes all the right noises, flies the flag at the funerals. But what is it about really?”

“Standing with our allies?”

“How does it go now? All the way with Russia and America? Exactly how does that help us?”

“The balance of power. All that?”

“Well balances shift, and we’ve had enough of it. We see a future in making peace in the region and excluding meddlers.”

Ruby paused, wondering how that would look on a transcript. Picturing an interrogation room. Adam smiled, as if to say that yes he had considered that.

“I can’t see Sydney and Brisbane going along with that.” She said.

“It splits.” He said. “North and South. We go with our backers, they go with theirs.”

She thought about that, about borders. How do you do that? Ruby looked across at Xiuming, as if to ask ‘and you?’

“We are not concerned with the global balances. I’m part of a network of business people that like what you stand for. We recognise the shifts in investment. People have had enough of predatory capitalism. Taking a short term profit by ripping off everyone, employees and customers. We are solid businesses that recognise the importance of social coherence. Your approach resonates with my network.” He looked across at Adam, who continued.

“You serve your country, put yourself in the line of fire. Then you come back and can’t even afford to buy a house. Don’t worry about money or resources. Once we flip sides in the war it will be like a huge tide.”

The discussion continued in this vein. Ruby relaxed a bit, got out of her huddled in Dandenong funk. Felt like that just maybe it would work out. Afterwards there was time for them to go up onto the top deck and take in the view. Adam leaned against the railing. Ruby tried to make out the gas terminal on shore.

“Conspirators. All of us. They will disappear us, if we let them.” Adam said.

Ruby’s boat was ready. As it drifted out, and her journey back to Tooradin began, she wondered what would become of them all. It was hard not to look up and expect to see an armed drone swooping low, or even a fighter jet. Hard to believe that what they imagined could actually happen.

At Tooradin the car was waiting.

“I’ve got a stray drone in the east.” Noah said.

“Armed?”

“No, it’s too small. I think it is just curious about you.”

“We scanned the car again. Nothing transmitting from it.”

“I know. It’s working visually I think. You’ve clicked over a threshold somewhere.”

“Stray fishing person doesn’t fish for long enough?”

“Something like that.”

“So what do we do?”

“A salmon in the stream. We find a stray crowd and establish our membership. Lull them back into a false sense of security.”

They were both silent while the car looped around. Noah watched the drone path.

“It’s hard to imagine. Even after meeting with them.”

“You can’t think like that.”

“I know. Dream it into reality. But it seems so unlikely.”

“That’s what they want you to think. It’s how they hold on.”

“We lose that drone?”

“It’s off chasing shoppers. Yes.”

Noah was buried in something as she walked in, but looked up.

“Made it.” She said.

“Not what you expected?”

“No. Not at all. They were so relaxed about it. So confident.”

“So should you be.”

“Maybe on the outside it looks so strong, but in here it seems to be held together with tape. So fragile.”

“You know there is some guy sitting in government headquarters, staring at data, saying exactly the same thing. Imagining the rebels have amassed a huge army, ready to strike.”

She smiled.

“Yes. I guess.”