Chapter 42

While Tom had been busy doing Tom things, Nena hadn’t been idle.

She had gotten onto her old Guidance Counsellor and explained what she wanted to do. He was happy to help and had her signed up as an external student who had access to the Uni’s campus in no time.

He found that Nena was already in the system and had a near-perfect GPA. Hence, he had no trouble with processing her application. This meant she could study on-line or go to the daily lectures and see the professors when she needed to do so.

A lot of engineers can’t afford to give up their day job, so the Uni ran evening lectures for the external students. Nena could also book into the Uni’s labs when she wanted to, use the libraries, and attend any workshops they ran.

Nena loved this idea, as she could also do, however, many units of study as she wanted to each trimester. Many of the units had a one-week block of attendance at the Uni, at the end of the trimester. They were to complete outstanding labs and projects and do the final exam if the subject had one.

The students could even do some of the experiments or projects at their workplace if they were adequately documented. Many of the lecturers liked the students to submit video evidence in these cases.

This structure allowed the students to study and work.

Next, she looked into how to get her licence to drive a bus.

She learnt that she had to obtain a Driver Authorisation from the Department of Transport and Main Roads. This meant she had to have a medical certificate with the correct form, of course, and have a criminal check or a Blue Card, which she had.

A Blue Card is required so you can teach or work with children, and a criminal check is a part of getting one. Nena had worked part-time in a Childcare Centre when she was studying her degree, and the card was still valid.

Then she could do a written test and organise lessons. One site recommended she do a minimum of twelve lessons and get her open HR license. So, she organised a medical just before lunchtime and passed it with flying colours.

Taking all of her documents and the filled out form, she presented herself to the Department of Transport that afternoon to do her written test, which she passed, and she obtained her permit.

When Tom came over to check on her that night, they discussed all that she found out and done. Tom suggested she do as many lessons as she felt comfortable with even though she really didn’t need to learn how to drive their bus since Bus did the actual driving.

So, Nena booked herself in to do her driving lessons over the next four days. She decided to do two sets of two-hour sessions on each of the first three days. She would then do a two-hour session Friday morning and her final driving test that afternoon.

She was surprised that she was able to get the driving test booked on such short notice, but she wasn’t one to kick a gift horse. The sooner it was done, the sooner she could be Tom’s chauffeur. She suspected the compulsions on the magical disc was pushing her to get it done.

Nena found that she had little trouble driving a bus or a truck and had a lot of fun doing it. She also suspected the magic of the disc helped her. So, unlike Tom, she had no problems or fears when driving in heavy traffic. Even her instructor was amazed how quickly she took to the big rigs he got her to drive.

Nena spent the rest of her time that week with her nose in the books that Tom had given her. Her fascination with magic grew with every page she read. While she became aware that the size of gems in the magical disc that she had would limit what she could achieve, it didn’t discourage her one bit.

She also had quite a few in-depth discussions with Bus about magic and the planet he came from and the other worlds he had been to. She was flabbergasted at just how long Bus had been around.

She was even more surprised when he told her how long she could now expect to live. Unlike Tom, she did realise that their slow aging and long lives would cause them problems in the future.

It was something she was going to have to discuss with him.

Friday couldn’t come soon enough for Tom.

It had been a hectic week for him. He was surprised by how many people from the other departments rang him or came to say goodbye to him and to wish him well with his new profession.

The Team still didn’t know who exactly Tom believed was the mastermind of the shipments of drugs and the laundering of the money they had been investigating. Tom told them all would be revealed over the weekend and on Monday.

He said to them that it would better for him to have already resigned because some of the people involved were not going to be very happy with him. That only made the team wonder just who was implicated that Tom hadn’t named.

He mentioned that he had already made sure that copies of the database had been backed up and that the physical evidence couldn’t be destroyed. He didn’t reveal that he had dropped a file with instructions on Rachelle’s desk that she would find after he left.

Each member of his team knew part of what Tom had been investigating, and some of the people involved but not all of what he knew. Even in quiet discussions, they still hadn’t put all of it together. They did wonder what sort of bomb he had left behind and how it would fall out over them.

They were all unaware that some people in various departments of law enforcement were very busy setting up the stings that would happen over the weekend. Tom’s network of informants and those people who he influenced, spread far wider than any other person knew.

At the end of the going away party at work, he hugged all of his co-worker’s goodbye and thanked them for helping him finalise his last set of cases. He promised to see his team at 2.0 that night for dinner.

The first the team heard of the consequences of their actions, was on the news the next morning.

Tom was in the bus on Saturday morning, having breakfast with Nena, after a late start.

Nena liked to have music playing in the background, so she had a radio turned on when the news came on. They listened to the announcer as he told of the raids that had happened in the early hours of the morning.

Several of Brisbane’s container wharves, four warehouses, three office buildings, two Bikers gang-houses and six private residences were all invaded by Federal and State Police.

Nena was shocked at the sheer amounts of drugs, money and weapons that had been found. The guns were all illegal in Australia. While some of the drugs had been ready for market, such as the cocaine and cannabis, other shipments had been the ingredients required to make methamphetamines.

Nena looked at the pensive expression on Tom’s face. “Is this part of your case?”

Tom nodded, “Yes, and even more people are going to be very pissed-off when they are arrested over the weekend and into next week. The courts are going to be very busy come Monday.”

“Will they come after you?” Nena asked with some trepidation.

Tom shrugged, “They could if they worked out that I put it all together. It won’t stop what is going to happen and would only be to be vindictive if they did. I doubt I’ll even get called up to testify.”

“Why not?” Nena just had to ask as she buttered her toast.

Tom grinned as he got up to refresh his coffee. “I developed a program to help the police trace the criminals involved in these sorts of crimes four years ago when I was an FYC.”