Free Nature of Ash, The by Mandy Hager

‘’Cause you can bet your arse l’m going to seek revenge for Dad.’
    She shakes her head. ‘It’s not about your father, Ashley—’
    ‘It fucking is.’
    ‘You’re wrong. This conflict’s been building for years and years. We’re just the meat in the sandwich. Collateral damage.’
    God I hate that phrase — it’s bullshit-speak. Anyway, who does she think she is, teaching me to suck eggs? My father raised me on this stuff; I don’t need her to tell me that we’re all just pawns in a few greedy pricks’ ego game — that’s more than bloody obvious. But it’s also not the point. ‘You think I should just forget? Someone sent Dad threatening notes. If that’s not personal, then what is?’
    Jiao’s eyes widen. ‘You know this for sure?’
    I glance over at Mikey, who’s shuffling in his chair as he picks his nose behind his hand. ‘Can you put the kettle on for Jiao, mate? She’d like a cup of tea.’
    Mr Raging Hormones nearly trips over himself as he leaps to his feet. ‘Coming up!’ He beams at Jiao and heads off to the kitchen like a love-sick fool.
    ‘I found them in Dad’s office today,’ I say, quietly so he can’t hear. ‘That’s why Jeannie came — she’s a cop.’
    ‘Wow.’ She shakes her head, as if sifting the words into her brain. ‘Does she know who it might be?’
    ‘Nope, but it doesn’t take a genius to guess.’ If she can’t see it has to be the UPR, she’s purposefully playing blind.
    Jiao goes all quiet, her eyes downcast. She picks up her discarded spoon and twirls it in her hand. Taps it on the table. Places it back carefully in her empty bowl. ‘We’d better check the TV,’ she says at last, sounding almost as knackered as I feel.
    I turn it on as Mikey brings us hot drinks. It’s not hard to find out what’s happening: almost every channel’s cancelled its usual programming to keep up with the breaking news.
    There’s been a curfew put in place in all the major cities: no one’s allowed out after dark. And there’s picture after picture of mobilising troops — tanks rolling into towns and Unimogs patrolling city streets. Offshore, there’s now a build-up of container ships that can’t get into the blockaded ports at New Plymouth and Clifford Bay. And on board the various navy ships amassing in our territorial waters, the Aussies and the big boys of the Western Alliance are playing cat-and-mouse with gunships from the UPR.
    ‘Ho-ly shit!’ It’s hard to comprehend that this is real.
    When the reporters start to check in from the regions, Jiao tenses like a cornered rat. ‘Look! Look! That’s where my parents work,’ she says, all squeaky, pointing to the screen. It’s easy enough to make out the armed guards patrolling the perimeter of the heavily fenced factory farm. Then the camera zooms in on a large group of workers being drilled in how to handle guns. Frightened faces, thin and pale from crappy food and little rest, come into view. As the camera pans around, Jiao yelps.
    ‘That’s Ba! There!’ She springs up to point at the screen,but the camera moves on before I can identify who she means. She rocks back on her heels, her cheeks two pink starbursts. ‘Human shields,’ she mutters, then she looks at me. ‘Somehow I have to get them out.’
    ‘You’re kidding me. You really think you can just march up there and expect them to release your parents ’cause you ask?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ she says. ‘Okay? I just don’t know. But I can’t sit here doing nothing — they’d expect more from me than that.’
    ‘Come on. Surely they can’t—’
    ‘You don’t understand. I owe my parents everything. I’m their one hope for a better life.’
    ‘That’s ridiculous. They can’t hang that on you. You’re just a girl.’
    I shrink back from the furnace in her eyes.
    ‘Exactly. They could have aborted me — waited for a son — but they said I must be female for a purpose, so they brought me over here to give us all a