Hobbyards

‘In the centre lay a pool, filled with a foul brackish sludge. Half-a-dozen pipes emerged from the wall on the right side of the chamber. The pipes connected to big, rusted pumps—like the bilge pumps on a ship. More pipes emerged from the pumps and plunged into the brackish water … On several hooks hung rubber suits with hoods; others held black masks with glass visors and hoses attached to small metal canisters. A pair of rubber gauntlets hung on one of the hooks. He touched them, but they fell to pieces and flopped onto the tiles.’

Jim is a police sergeant in the small bush town of Barnstaple in North Western Victoria. Jim has issues: his ex-partner has custody of their son, Grant; he shot a bank robber and can’t use a gun; he has a drinking problem … but that’s all set to change when Cocky Foster goes to investigate the old military facility he’s just bought at the back of his land…