This was the part Karla dreaded. Agent Yang had requested that he go through all the information she had gathered over the last week, though interestingly he specified that he wasn’t interested in her sources. Also strangely enough, they were meeting up at 8pm at night at the office.

In the meeting room where they had first met him, Karla and Donavan waited with some suspense as the agent went over the information they had given him. Yang was unusually silent throughout the entire inspection, and only broke the silence once he was finally done. “I’m impressed. You actually got quite a bit of pertinent information, including some details my people weren’t able to uncover. Well done.”

The compliment was genuine enough to defuse the tension, allowing Karla to breathe a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Agent Yang.”

“Just call me Lim. We know each other well enough for that, Karla,” Lim chuckled, leaning forward. “Heavens only know that, as much I enjoy this job, being all secretive and distant drives me crazy, so getting to talk to normal people in the know is a blessing.”

Being a secret government agent definitely isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, Karla thought to herself. “I suppose I can sympathise with that.”

“I don’t really appreciate the fact that you tried to hide the fact that you were enthralled and brainwashed by the witch, however.”

Karla stiffened up. That wasn’t part of the details she included in the report. “How did you-”

“You have your sources, we have ours. I suppose I can understand why you might have done so, but we were keeping an eye on you, so I suppose it wouldn’t have changed a lot unless we outright put you under protection, and you’re more helpful being out and about rather than locked up,” Lim sighed. “And we might’ve been able to fix that problem growing in your womb as we speak before it became an actual issue if we had known sooner.”

And now Karla felt a bit guilty about that. “Well, fuck. Sorry. I still don’t fully trust you and your people yet. I… Hope you understand that.”

“No offence taken, it’s not like the government has earned a good reputation among journalists lately. We’re not the federal police, but still,” Lim nodded, leaning back. “Don’t worry, though, we’ve got things under control. The coven will need to congregate in the open somewhere nearby on the night of the full moon to perform their ritual, otherwise they’ll lose their chance for another lunar cycle.”

“So you’ve got a plan to ensnare all of them, then?” Donavan chuckled, “Sweet.”

“Yes, but there’s a catch. Karla, at roughly around 6PM that evening, the embryo in your womb will become active and you’ll be almost instantly enthralled and compelled to return to Gulara’s side.”

Karla winced. No wonder Gulara was so confident in things going her way. “That’s a problem. What would happen if the ritual were to fully complete?”

“Well, firstly… You’d give birth to Gulara’s child there and then,” Lim said with a frown. “Second of all, you’ll likely experience a mental and spiritual ‘rebirth’ and become a full-fledged witch, fully under the coven’s thrall permanently. So it’s essential that we stop the ritual as soon as possible.”

Donavan raised an eyebrow. “And you guys know where the ritual is going to be?”

Lim sighed, pinching his nose in obvious frustration. “I fucking wish we did. It could take place literally anywhere in town or in the area around it, the only real conditions are full unobstructed exposure to the full moon. There’s a good chance we might have to use you as our guide, Karla, but when you know where the location is, well… You’re not gonna be very cooperative at all.”

“I’m also likely going to warn Gulara that you plan to raid the ritual if that happens, too,” Karla sighed. “Bloody hell.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But right now, I want to take you somewhere,” Lim said as he stood up. “There’s places to see and people to meet, and we’re also going to discuss if and how we’re going to disseminate the news you’ve been gathering.”

Karla stood up, “at this time of night? You found another monster carcass?”

Lim chuckled, “just follow me, and you’ll see.”

❖

While Karla had taken Lim at his word as she and Donavan rode in his car, she knew this was going to be interesting when the car left the town’s limits.

What she hadn’t anticipated was the car driving up to a checkpoint manned by troops from the Australian Army. And past that was what was essentially a recently-erected temporary base of operations for the Australian armed forces, mostly populated by huge tents, surrounded by sandbags and barbed wire. She could even see tanks. It was almost like the army was preparing for war.

“Lim… What the fuck is going on?” Karla said with some disbelief as they got out of the car.

“Contingency measures. The situation has gotten bad enough that the government has authorised the Australian Defence Force to surround and set up checkpoints around Angel Bay,” Lim said as he began leading her and Donavan through the camp. “Nobody gets out or in.”

“The situation seems to be fine as it is, it’s not like the ‘Emperor’ has actually won any battles so far,” Donavan pointed out.

“No, but more people are going missing and the ‘Emperor’ is becoming more powerful. And too many monsters are sneaking into town, putting people at risk. While the Commission and the ‘heroines’ have prevented any known casualties so far, the risk of things going out of control is growing.”

They entered the main command tent - people were coming in and out, and it looked like a war room, with a big table showing a map of the region splayed out across it. Karla immediately recognised the Aboriginal man talking to the commanding officer - Commissioner Danian Gurumarra.

“Commissioner, I’ve brought Miss Thurman and Mr. Amner as you requested,” Lim said.

“Excellent work,” the Commissioner nodded as he turned to them, and extended a hand, “Commissioner Danian Gurumarra, Australian Paranormal Activities Commission. My roots are with the Ngarrindjeri people in South Australia. I’m what you might call a ‘Cleverman’.”

Karla shook his hand, as did Donavan. The way he made eye contact almost scared the crap out of her - it was like she was a wallaby being watched by a wedge-tailed eagle. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir. I’m not sure why I’m important enough for you to give me the time of night, but…”

“You’ve made direct contact with the ‘heroines’ and been pretty active in your investigations, that should be enough,” said the commanding officer. Mildly tanned skin, short brown hair barely visible from under his military cap, sharp green eyes and an aging face of a man whom Karla guessed was in his fifties. He shook hands with the pair as well. “General Richard Albrighton. I’m in charge of this containment operation.”

“So the army is here and surrounding the entire town. I have a couple of guesses as to how and why this isn’t making the news,” Karla frowned.

“That’s not going to be the case for long, Miss Thurman,” said Gurumarra, as he glanced down at the map. “People are already asking questions after the incident in the shopping district, despite our best efforts to manage collective memories and social media. Containing the news is unsustainable, and we’re sure news will get out about the containment as well. That’s partly why you’re here. We’re going to break the news, and we’re looking at some kind of evacuation operation to keep any more civilians from being kidnapped.”

“So the masquerade around the paranormal is… Going away?” Donavan asked incredulously.

“Not entirely. At least… Not yet,” the General said, shaking his head. “Everything is gonna happen slowly. We’ll admit the paranormal exists in some form, sure, but we’ll say everything is under control as confidently as possible. You’re in the press business, you know damn well that people will accept blatant lies even on ‘reputable’ news programs. Or on TV or the internet in general.”

As much as Karla wished to object, she remembered that the Murdoch media empire was a thing and proceeded to immediately concede the point, as much as she hated to do so. “That’s… Not… Untrue…”

The General nodded. “We’re working with the hand we’ve been dealt as best as we can. And it’s not a unilateral decision, either - the Commissioner’s been talking with his counterparts from other nations. There’s a general consensus that, in the event of a paranormal breach that cannot be contained, any roll-out of information should be incremental and as controlled as possible.”

Gurumarra sighed, making eye contact with Karla again. “You’re gonna be part of the media blitz - you’ll be able to break some of the local details wide open exclusively, but by and large we’re gonna have you stick to the larger narrative. I know you’re not gonna be happy with that, but I’m sure you understand our reasons by now.”

Karla took a deep breath. “You’re right. I’m not entirely happy with this. But the alternative is keeping all of my work locked away, so I’ll take what I can get.”

“And you know the identities of the heroines. What’re you planning to do with that?”

“Nothing. I’ve promised them that I’ll keep that a secret, even from you,” Karla said.

That got a chuckle out of Gurumarra, who smirked slightly. “That’s fine. I don’t plan on exposing the Kendrick sisters either.”

Karla’s jaw dropped involuntarily, and she noticed Donavan had done the same thing. “You knew?”

“They were at the top of my suspect list from the damn start, Miss Thurman. They already had substantial connections to the paranormal as it was before all of this went down. And my people had been keeping an eye on them for years - their parents would kill me if something happened to them on my watch,” Gurumarra said. “I’d elaborate, but I have my own secrets to keep.”

“Where the hell are their parents, then? Do they even know what’s going on?!”

“Overseas. And yes, they know. They almost decided to come back just because their kids were involved in this shitshow,” Gurumarra sighed. “Atsuko is rather protective of her daughters for reasons I also can’t elaborate on. Ryana and I convinced her that we could contain the situation and make sure the girls had enough help that nothing serious would likely happen to them. Besides, the girls are adults. It’s their choice whether to fight or not. I personally think it’s crucial experience for them. Estella in particular having the tutelage of an experienced Arcane Knight certainly put our minds at ease to some extent.”

As much as Karla really wanted to know more, she knew there was little chance of her getting anything out of Gurumarra. So she decided it wasn’t worth arguing with him on that. “Okay, fair. But why haven’t you evacuated the town already if things are getting this bad?”

The General frowned. “Because, as much as I hate to say it, we’re not ready. We’re still establishing the perimeter around the town. We’ve checkpointed all roads going in and out, but the bush is still a bit of a blind spot for us. We can’t risk the ‘Tenebris Imperatoris’ or any of his minions escaping. And as you know, he’s drawing in supernatural entities not only from across the country but from overseas.”

Suddenly, cracks of gunshots were heard in the distance. Thankfully it was far away enough that it didn’t immediately spook Karla, but she was still unnerved. “What was that?!”

“Could be a lot of things, Miss Thurman. Let’s go see for ourselves,” said Gurumarra.

❖

Karla and Donavan accompanied the Commissioner, Lim and the General out to a nearby spot out in the bush where a patrol was waiting. The soldiers were still shining their lights on multiple corpses, who looked vaguely human from a distance, but completely naked.

“Sir! We encountered these… Things while out on patrol,” said the squad leader, who saluted the General. “Looked perfectly human at first - told them to get on the ground with their hands on their heads where we could see ‘em. Instead they tried to attack us.”

“Well, I’ll be damned. To think these bastards would come all the way from the Western Desert,” Gurumarra grunted as he started looking over the corpses.

Karla took a look as well, and what she saw was… Disturbing. They looked human at first, but they looked emaciated, and had long hair that stood upright. They had sharp, fang-like teeth. They almost looked demonic. “Are those demons or something?”

“Demons? No. Monsters, yes. They’re called ‘Mamu’, cannibals from Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara country,” Gurumarra explained as he carefully examined the bodies. “They’re shapeshifters able to assume humanoid shape - they probably would’ve been found out if they had surrendered, so no wonder they decided to attack. Didn’t do them much good, though, they got shot anyway.”

“Would’ve been terrible if they had gotten through, good work,” the General said, nodding to the soldiers. “Let’s wrap up the bodies to take them back to base.”

“Wait, you have more monster corpses like these?” Donavan asked, as he took pictures.

“Son, you haven’t seen the damn morgue, yet,” the General grunted. “Shouldn’t be showing it to civilians, but if you want to get nightmares, that’s your problem…”

❖

Karla’s jaw dropped once again as she saw what was in the tent that was used as a makeshift morgue. “Good lord.”

There were several different corpses laid out on the ground, both relatively human-like and others more monstrous - examples included a huge hairy man, an ape-like creature, creatures with long hair and skeletal bodies held together with thin strips of flesh, a tiny red man with a large head and no teeth, a man with characteristics and face of a flying fox… To think creatures like these all actually existed.

“Bloody hell,” Donavan said, not even taking any photos as he stared.

“If we weren’t killing these things, they’d be preying on people,” said Lim.

“These are only some of the paranormal dangers lurking in the bush,” Gurumarra said. “Dangers that we blackfellas have been wary of for thousands of years, long before the whitefellas came. They usually don’t wander beyond their native areas. The fact that they’re making treks so far just to one place is partly why we’re setting up containment in the first place - to keep the Emperor in and the monsters out.”

“Why is the Emperor drawing all of these things in?!” Karla asked with some exasperation and horror, “this is completely insane!”

“Evil draws in evil, Miss Thurman, and if the power behind the ‘Emperor’ is what I think it is? It’s a special kind of evil,” said Gurumarra. “Not necessarily more evil than the rest, but it’s an evil that violates the laws of these lands and the boundaries of them. You whitefellas brought it here and allowed it to fester and grow to the problem it is now, and even back then it was never properly exterminated.”

Karla couldn’t stay here any longer. Between the sight of the bodies and the stench? It was just overwhelming. She stepped outside the tent, taking deep breaths the moment she was exposed to fresher air.

“Overwhelming, isn’t it? I was exposed to things like this when I was just a boy, you know,” Gurumarra said as he came out with her. “Decades of fighting monsters and managing the paranormal. It’s a thankless job, but someone’s gotta do it.”

“Before this I would’ve thought this was a story I’d be tempted to kill for. Now I feel like I’m in over my head,” Karla groaned, rubbing her temples. “And that’s not taking into account the fact that I got knocked up by another woman who wants to convert me into another witch. Christ, I can’t believe I’m actually saying that.”

“If I had a cent for every whitefella who said that after learning the truth about the paranormal, I’d have a lot more dollars in the bank,” Gurumarra remarked… And sighed. “Nevermind the blackfellas in this country who’ve lost touch with the Dreaming. It’s a terrible shame, it is. You lose touch with the spiritual world the more you focus on the physical, and it’s hard to reconnect when you’re busy trying to do things like, say, pay off a mortgage or even keep your job. The paranormal was just part of the world for thousands of years, no masquerade getting in the way, but then the whitefellas came and mucked up everything. Killed a lot of people. Thought they knew best, but then came running back to us when they realised they were in over their heads and didn’t know shit about how to deal with stuff we’ve been handling for thousands of years. It’d be hilarious if it wasn’t so stupid and tragic.”

Karla could understand how bitter Gurumarra felt. The systemic wrecking ball through the Aboriginal populations and cultures through disease, slaughter and stealing children away from their families had done an unfathomable amount of harm and destroyed a lot of knowledge. Even now, one could see the effects in normal life, especially in rural communities. And it looked like the same could be said for the paranormal side of things. How many lives in general could’ve been saved if racist policies hadn’t been enacted, not just Aboriginal? Just the thought of it was making her mad, too.

Still, she couldn’t dwell on that for long as she looked up into the night’s sky. The planetary shield was a constant reminder that her world was never going to be the same ever again. “What the hell do I do now? Even if I break this story, knowing there’s so much more and I can’t tell any of it is going to be exhausting. Everyone else will be covering the ‘extraterrestrials’ and overshadowing me anyway, because I’m just a reporter from a local paper.”

Gurumarra looked up towards the sky as well. He looked like he was mulling over something in his head. “Maybe. But someone who’s experienced things you have might have other opportunities. The ABC and SBS have paranormal divisions for those in the know. Even Australia has secret minorities of paranormal beings who need those kinds of services. Maybe you could do something for them. And perhaps one day, if we decide to tear down the masquerade entirely, you could be amongst the first to tell the world and tell stories few others can.”

Karla smiled. “Maybe. That might be interesting. But I’d have to not be brainwashed into becoming an evil witch, first, so maybe I’ll wait until we make it through this before I think about that.”

“You, being converted? No. Not happening. Not on my damn watch,” Gurumarra said, his expression hardening. “That coven should’ve know better than to leave the mountains. I’ve dealt with them before. Gulara thinks she can make this kind of power play during all of this chaos? If she isn’t dead by the end of this, she’ll know the consequences of not heeding my warnings.”

He turned towards her. “Still, you don’t seem as stressed about what’s coming as you should be.”

“I’m basically resigned to it. Besides, I got my own back when I shanked her. God, that was so satisfying,” Karla laughed. “You should’ve seen the look on her face.”

“Still, the witch is only one of our concerns. I imagine you know about the bake-danuki by now, but even he’s mostly a nuisance - I’ve already talked to my Japanese counterpart, and there’s already measures to contain him. He doesn’t know it, but he won’t be able to leave the area, even if he tries to teleport,” Gurumarra said. “The remaining monsters can be tracked down and dealt with. The ‘Emperor’… That’s a much harder task, and he is the biggest threat.”

“So… Who or what is he?”

“The ‘who’ is still, frustratingly, something we haven’t nailed down yet, but we think he’s probably a university student,” Gurumarra noted. “His first target was the university. I don’t believe that’s a coincidence - the university would be a place he would be most familiar with and be consistently populated with students and teachers across the week, of course it would be an excellent first target. If the sisters and their benefactors hadn’t intervened, he most certainly would’ve gotten away with it.”

“And if he did, I wouldn’t be here talking to you about it,” Karla sighed. “Okay, how does some university kid gain that much power?”

“By bonding with a much more powerful entity - a spirit without corporeal form. Likely one sealed away a long time ago and only recently was able to exert influence, probably drew in a troubled youth and made a deal with him to become its host.”

“And together they’re trying to take over the damn world. Jesus.”

“Which is why we’re going to these lengths to stop them,” said Gurumarra. “But I believe that’s enough for tonight. Agent Yang will take you and Mr. Amner back to the office. I will contact you again when it will be necessary.”

“Well… Thank you for allowing me access to all of this. It’s been rather enlightening,” Karla said.

“I will say this, Miss Thurman - I plan to get personally involved fairly soon. I’m done commanding from the sidelines.”

Gurumarra walked away, and Karla went over to Donavan and Lim, who seemed to be having their own conversation nearby. Lim nodded, and lead them back to the car. “What do you think of the Commissioner?”

“He’s seen a lot, and he’s… Tired, I think. And done with all of the shit happening around him,” Karla said. “Sounds like he’s going to take matters into his own hands soon.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. Whenever the Commissioner gets directly involved in anything, you know things are very serious,” Lim nodded. “I’d say he’d be looking forward to retirement, but he isn’t done looking for and training someone to properly replace him. When it comes to a country like this, the training to gain the capacity oversee all of the paranormal activity investigation efforts is pretty involved. Apparently he knows every single Aboriginal Australian language.”

“All of them? Like… Literally all of them?” Donavan blinked.

“Well, magic makes the process of learning a lot easier, but yes, all of them. It’s why I’d rather not aim for his position. It’s far too much for most folks, even people who’ve been at this for a long time. I can’t imagine how he handles it. But that’s why he’s the man in charge.”

As they got back in the car, Karla was forced to reflect on what she had learned tonight, and the questions that had arisen from those facts. She thought she had a good handle on her understanding of the situation before, but now she had a lot more to think on.