Chapter 1

 

"Aw, mum, they won't bother us... Dad's too important ..."

The boy's mother stared at him, worry etched all over her beautiful features. He was right in one way. Her husband was indeed a powerful figure. He owned his own company which was the largest chain of privately owned supermarkets in Australia and he lived in a very large house on one of the biggest blocks on Sovereign Island, a man-made island in the Broadwater north of Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast of Queensland.

"Anyway, no-one's ever been taken from TSS or St Augustine's ..."

He was right there, but for the wrong reasons. The Southport School, an Anglican grammar school, was one of the best private schools in the state, as was St Augustine's, its female equivalent, both situated in Southport, just north of Surfers' Paradise. But it was simply because they were the best schools in the area that there had never been the need for the inspector to visit the homes of any of the two schools' students before.

Craig and Wendy Sedgman were not only superb athletes, handsome and beautiful and bright and bubbly and therefore popular with their fellow students; they were also intelligent, very much so, but they had become rebels and of late, had refused to knuckle down to their school work.

That they had the capacity was well established. By the year 2030, technological advances had developed a machine that could instantly assess a person's brain-power and even his or her strengths and weaknesses in a particular area. All it took was a few minutes sitting in the chair with the helmet over your head and the results were printed out for the benefit of parents and teachers as well as the student himself. Apart from determining raw intelligence, the machine suggested a career path but that was still up to the individual.

The state took a keen interest in a child's development but didn't dictate what he must do with his life. What it did do, however, was demand that the child performed to the best of his or her ability.

There was another change in education, too. Nowadays, advances in neurological research meant a much deeper understanding of aberrant behaviour including criminal and indeed, any psychopathic abnormality at all. These patterns were detected early and corrected in the school to such an extent that criminals were almost non-existent. These and other tendencies, once detected, were eradicated by special sessions.

So was laziness or rebellion against authority. Not that Australia was an authoritarian state. It certainly wasn't, any more than other democracies around the world, but the advances had meant that people could be educated from a young age to behave in a manner acceptable to the vast majority without impinging on their individuality.

To this end, trained inspectors visited schools very regularly and when an irregularity was detected, went to the student's home for a chat to the boy or girl in company with his or her parents. The home visit was not pleasant, either for the student or his parents but it was only the first stage in a series of 'corrective processes' that faced him if he didn't change his errant ways.

Craig and Wendy had been slacking off for months. They knew it but like so many children before them, they were testing the system ... Every child will try its parents to see how far they can go - what they can get away with. That's exactly what Craig and his sister were doing now.

They were twins. Both tall and fair with fine, shining, golden blond hair, clear blue eyes, a perfect complexion and bodies that were quite perfect: highly athletic with well-defined muscles and an athlete's coordination. Their minds were also highly attuned: they thought almost as one and could just about read the other's mind. They had been and could still have been at the top of their respective schools if they had so wished.

But they weren't. They had been until the beginning of this, their final year, but half way through, not long before their eighteenth birthdays, they had, without actually articulating the idea, decided to goof off.

The results were now in their mother's hands as she stared from their report cards back to their somewhat defiant faces. "You are not inviolate, you know," she said softly. "The inspector will be aware of these results ..."

"Indeed I am, Mrs Sedgman." The voice came from the doorway. Inspectors did not need to knock on doors. They entered any house they wished quite freely and Inspector Donovan had merely used his universal key to enter the Sedgman house.

The twins stared at him in horror. They had really felt they were inviolate, what with their father's wealth and prestige, and the exclusive nature of their schools; but here he was and he looked very severe in his dark clothing.

Inspectors were very carefully chosen, not only for their intelligence and understanding of human nature, but for the calm severity of their demeanour. They were meant to look severe. They never smiled. They were supposed to invoke fear in children and young adults who were not performing to their best. Their authority reached right up to a child's thirtieth birthday by which time it was deemed a person who still needed their attention was 'recalcitrant' and was de-citizenised. He or she was then sold as a labourer to work out their lives in conditions that bespoke the slavery of centuries gone by.

Paul Donovan had authority over all the schools in the Southport area including the private ones and he had been watching the Sedgman twins for some time now. But it was time to act, hence his visit to Sovereign Island. He had never had reason to come here before and his eyes had widened as he stared at the hundreds of million-dollar-plus houses on the island. He wondered what was wrong with the twins.

They obviously had everything that money could buy; could it be their parents had the wrong approach? That had certainly been the case in years past. Rich kids had often been in that position and had grown up as bad eggs. This of course was why he and his ilk always visited the home first.

But he had listened to Mrs Sedgman talking to her children and had sensed she really did care about her offspring. Could it be the father?

He moved into the room and looked at the three Sedgmans severely. "Where is Mr Sedgman?"

"I am here. Who are you?"

The tall businessman strode into his wife's sitting room, staring at the black-clad inspector with curiosity. He had felt the tension in the room as soon as he had entered it. Who was this man?

"My name is Donovan. I am your children's inspector ..."

"Ah," said the senior Sedgman, as if that explained everything. Like his wife, he had had no idea the twins were not performing as they had all through their school years thus far - with exemplary success, but he had sensed a change in them. What it was, he had no idea but he didn't like it. Not that they were rude to him or Margaret or didn't perform their chores with any less efficiency. It was really indefinable, but it was there.

"And I suppose there is a reason for your visit?"

"I take it you have not seen your children's report cards, Sir?"

"No I haven't," he said, taking the proffered booklets from his wife. He glanced down the relevant pages with disbelief etched all over his handsome face. "I see," he said at last. And then, after a long pause, "So what happens now, Mr. Donovan?"

"Since this is a first visit, they will be punished by me in front of you. I will then leave and you will speak to and with them. If there is a need for a second visit, or, more likely, a public punishment before all your school, the punishment will be very much more severe. If a third visit is necessary, I will take them away with me ..."

Bill Sedgman nodded and went to stand with his wife. He was ashamed that the twins' actions had brought this ignominy on his household but it didn't even occur to him to demur from the inspector's decision.

The twins stared from him to their parents. They knew the score. It was ingrained during every year of a student's life at school. No one expected more of them than they could give. A boy or girl with limited capacity was taught to his limits and no more. A worthwhile job would be found for him that would suit him and which he would enjoy. But any child who didn't do his best, faced this. They both knew it ...

"You will now remove your clothes," he said.