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Goddammit.
“Hi, Dad, it’s me. You’re gonna have to speak up. I can’t hear you.”
“Jeremiah? Can you hear me now?”
It sounded like he was yelling but I could still barely hear him. “Yeah, now I can. It’s pretty loud here.”
“I’ve been watching the news,” he said. “Wondered how you were getting on.”
“All good at the moment. The frontal wall is just on us now. Things are gonna get busy for a while.”
He was quiet for a second. “Right, yes. I suppose they will.”
Then I was quiet, because I had no clue what to say. We were never good with talking. “Okay, Dad. I have to go.”
Another beat of silence. “Well, thanks for calling. I would have been worried.”
Would have?
It sounded like he was already, but maybe not.
“I’ll call you when I can. They’re saying we might lose the phone towers and power, so don’t worry too much if I can’t reach you.”
“Oh, sure. Okay, I’ll let you go.”
“Bye, Dad.”
“Okay. Be good.”
And the line went dead.
Tully took the phone from my ear. He gave the back of my neck a squeeze. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Yes. Thank you.” I met his gaze. “Thank you.”
He kissed the top of my head. “You’re welcome.”
“Okay, we’ve got two hundred and twenty kilometre per hour winds coming,” Doreen said.
Christ.
The roar outside was almost deafening as it was. The building shook with the force of the wind, the roof rattled consistently. We could hear the equipment on the roof resisting, the antennas, the ariels, and satellite dishes protesting, the metal all creaking and groaning.
But it felt as if it’d hold.
I was beginning to think this building was another bunker, second to the one in Kakadu. Built in the days when things were made to last. Granted, the bureau wasn’t built on the waterfront where Hazer was hitting first...
I glanced up at the screens showing live footage from the newsroom. The screen looked broken, only showing grey staticky images, but no. It was just all we could see. Shuddering views of horizontal rain and glimpses out to the ocean that looked like a void.
It was as incredible as it was frightening.
But the noise. I couldn’t believe how loud it was.
I had to wonder how Tully’s house was and if it was still standing. It fronted the water and would possibly be a direct hit.
“Tully, how’s your camera holding up?” I glanced back to find him and Suri sitting against the wall, close together, his arm around her shoulder. She was clearly scared, visibly shaking, and knowing she’d survived the Banda Aceh disaster, I wasn’t surprised.
Me looking back at them caused Doreen to look as well, and she froze. “Suri,” she murmured as she stood, just as the sound of metal ripping screeched in the furore above us. One of the dash screens went black.
