by Gareth Otton
They were never the real danger here, though. Amelia was glaring at him.
“What are you doing here?” she snapped.
“I thought I could help.”
“Who? Norman or her?”
Tad frowned at her lack of trust and said, “I know how important it is that people don’t panic. I’m here to help.”
She stared at him for a full five seconds like she was trying to see inside his head, but finally nodded toward the main stage where Lizzie was shouting at the Prime Minister. Norman sat in the guest chair and for once he looked a little ruffled, like he was actually getting annoyed.
“You don’t get to come in here and tell me what I can and can’t publish. That’s what the media is for, to stop people like you from keeping your secrets.”
“And the reason for people like me,” the Prime Minister replied. “Is to protect the people of this country, even if it means hiding things from them so that I can keep them safe.”
“The biggest lie any of you people ever sold yourself is that ignorance can ever protect people. Being informed is the only way people can learn to protect themselves. You’re only justifying your pathological need to control people.”
The Prime Minister was about to respond when he spotted Tad and let out an explosive sigh of relief.
“Thank God, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see anyone in my life. Will you please talk some sense into her?”
He fell back in his chair like he was exhausted while Lizzie spun to face Tad. Her eyes narrowed as she raised a finger and pointed it at him threateningly.
“Don’t even start,” she warned before Tad could so much as open his mouth. “You and me need to have words later about keeping me in the dark about world changing things. I know Stella has you wrapped around her little finger, but you should have told me about something this big.”
“Stella has nothing to do with this,” Tad started, but at Lizzie’s eye roll he felt the need to try again. “What I mean is, I am in complete agreement with the Prime Minister. Telling people will just create a lot of fear in a place where fear itself can lead to people’s deaths. You tell people about this and we’ll see nightmares like never before and we’d be doing our enemy’s job for them.”
“The latest statistics show that dreamcatchers are in over ninety-three percent of all homes in the Borderlands, and there’s a dreamcatcher in every hotel room in the UK,” Lizzie argued. “Just where are these nightmares supposed to come from.”
“With the amount of tourism and immigration to the Borderlands since this started, seven percent of the population is hardly a figure to laugh off,” Tad pointed out.
“Come off it, Tad. How many times have we been over these stats? Less than one in ten thousand people dream anything strongly enough for Dream to take hold, whether that’s a dream come true or a nightmare. Even if that doubled, you’d still be looking at a manageable amount of fallout.
“And don’t talk to me about doing the enemy’s job for them when you’re both sitting on this. Do you think the American people would stand by and accept what happened tonight in the name of a war they don’t even know about? Kuruk attacked a church service on Christmas Eve, for God’s sake. How do you think the nation with the largest Christian population in the world will take that news? You allowing them to pass it off as a Children of ADaM attack is just helping them.”
It might have been his lack of sleep, but Tad struggled to argue against that point. In fact, he struggled to find anything to say at all. Apparently he wasn’t alone because the Prime Minister didn’t rush to say anything either, giving Lizzie the chance to continue her argument.
“I thought you learned this lesson in February, but clearly not,” she said. “You can’t handle a situation by ignoring it and hoping it will go away when we’re talking about public perception. You need to get in front of a story and take control, otherwise you will always be dancing to someone else’s tune.
“You both need to come out in front of this and tell the world that one of the most horrendous terrorist attacks on British soil, because that is what it is, was ordered by the American government and carried out by American soldiers.”
Tad opened and closed his mouth as he struggled to find the flaw in her logic, then turned toward the Prime Minister for help. However, nothing was coming from that direction either.
“She has a point,” Tad admitted.
“I do?” Lizzie blurted in surprise. Then she blushed at her outburst and added in a more confident tone, “Of course I do.”
Tad turned back to Norman and asked, “Is she wrong? Am I missing something here?”
This time Lizzie stayed quiet to let the Prime Minister speak. There was a pregnant pause that went on long enough to become uncomfortable before the Prime Minister leaned forward and answered.
“If I agree to this, it will be my word against theirs, and I don’t have the political capital I used to have. We don’t have the evidence to back this up. It could easily backfire on us.”
“Worse than war breaking out on a grand scale and people finding out that you knew all along?” Lizzie asked.
Norman blanched as her words struck home.
“Someone remind me why I wanted this job,” he muttered.
“Because you’re an arrogant narcissist who can’t conceive of the notion you might be wrong and want to impose your will on the world,” Amelia answered with a straight face. “And somehow despite all that, you’re still the best person for the job.”
Norman laughed.
“Thanks for the glowing praise. I’ll remember that when it’s time for your next bonus.”
“You don’t give me bonuses,” Amelia pointed out.
“When you say things like that, do you blame me? I take it you agree with them?”
Amelia didn’t answer. She just stared at Norman in a way that looked blank to Tad, but Norman seemed to read like an open book.
He let out one last explosive sigh and then almost shouted, “Fuck it. Let’s do this.”
“Really?” Lizzie asked, stunned. “You mean I was right?”
“Do you want me to change my mind?” Norman asked, resurrecting the charming grin that he was so famous for. Lizzie struggled to find an answer and the Prime Minister didn’t give her the chance. He turned to Tad and winced. “You look like shit. You should get some sleep. I think I can handle things from here.”
Tad chuckled at the words, but couldn’t deny the advice. Now that the decision was made, his exhaustion returned with a vengeance.
“I don’t even know where to go,” he admitted. When no one seemed to know what to tell him, Tad waved them off and told them not to worry about it.
After mumbling a few goodbyes and getting a surprise hug from Lizzie, Tad headed back to the DTHQ. There were no guns pointed at him this time. Instead he found Stella waiting with Jen.
“Good timing,” Stella said. “We were just coming to find you.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Dr B sent me home,” Jen answered. “He said I was getting too tired and if I made a mistake, I might kill someone.”
“So you came here?” Tad asked, surprised she hadn’t gone back to Dr Burman’s.
“Dr B is busy at the hospital all night and said you were supposed to have me for Christmas anyway, so I might as well come home with you.”
“Christmas,” Tad muttered, barely able to believe it. Was it really just a day ago that he had been wrapping presents while Jen and Tony decorated the living room? “This isn’t quite what I had planned for us this year.”
“What did you get me?” Jen asked. When Tad only frowned in response she added, “It’s not like I’ll get to open it now, so you might as well tell me.”
Feeling a moment of playfulness despite everything, Tad said, “You can’t know until tomorrow. That’s the rules.”
“It is tomorrow,” Jen said, looking at the clock on the wall.
“It’s not morning yet... Stop, y
ou know what I mean. I’ll tell you tomorrow about the same time you would normally open your presents.”
Jen huffed in annoyance, but was interrupted as Stella laughed.
“This is going to be a Christmas for the books. Rather than opening presents, we’re just going to tell each other what they would have been opening had things been more normal. What a state.”
Despite his frustration at not being able to give Jen the Christmas he promised, he couldn’t help but laugh with her.
“We should make a show of it. Get up early, take it in turns, maybe even mime opening our presents.”
“Or you could just tell me now,” Jen pressed, though she was smiling as well.
Tad couldn’t think of anything clever to say in response, so he just shook his head and poked his tongue out at her. Jen snorted, then covered her nose and mouth in embarrassment as both Tad and Stella laughed.
The laugh didn’t last long because none of them could forget why they were here this early on Christmas Day nor everything that happened over the last day and a half.
“This is the last time,” Tad announced, his tone serious and earning the attention of both Stella and Jen. “I promise you both this is the last time Christmas will ever be ruined like this. No matter what happens, next year we’ll all be together, in a new home, celebrating Christmas right. That means you at home for good, Jen.” Turning to Stella he added, “And it means you have to take a full three days off. No sneaking out at night, you’re stuck with us for the duration. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. No excuses.”
“Three days?” Stella said like it was the most outrageous thing he could ask. Then her face broke into a grin and she said, “I think I can manage that. Okay, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
In a very un-Stella like moment, she reached out her hand and grabbed Tad’s own from the top, lifting it up to waist height in front of them both before looking at Jen.
“You in on this pact?” she asked. “This time next year, we spend the whole holiday together, no matter what?”
“Even if it means me and dad need to run?” Jen asked, her voice small and nervous. Tad flinched at the question as he realised what Jen was asking, and almost didn’t want Stella to answer and ruin the moment.
The importance of the question wasn’t lost on Stella either. With a serious expression and never breaking eye contact with Jen, she said, “No. Matter. What. You need to run, I’ll be going with you.”
“Really?” Jen asked, beaming and literally glowing with happiness, at least to Tad’s eyes. Her aura was flaring brighter with blue light than he had seen in a long time. On impulse, Jen rushed forward and hugged Stella. It took Stella by surprise and her own aura blinked out of existence for a moment before it too flared brighter and bluer than Tad had ever seen.
If Ashley Evans was here right now, he could confirm that all three of them were wearing matching colours. However, just the thought of that man threatened to dampen his mood, so Tad forced his mind back to the present.
“That’s not how this works, Jen,” he said, realising what Stella had been doing when she took his hand.
Jen stepped away from Stella, a look of confusion on her face until Tad nodded at his hand.
“This is a pact,” he said. “You’re supposed to put your hand in.”
Jen’s grin returned in an instant and she put her hand on top of Stella’s.
“It’s a pact,” she agreed.
Stella was about to say something, but another hand joined the group, though this one didn’t have thumbs and was covered in fur. Tad chuckled as he looked over to see Growler getting in on the action.
“You running with us too?” Tad asked.
Growler chuffed with excitement and wagged his tail in answer.
Not to be outdone, there was another chuff and another paw joined the group as Freckles added himself to the pact.
Seeing there was only one animal left, all eyes turned to Hawk, who had been sleeping in the corner and was just waking up. He looked up to see everyone standing in a circle with hands and paws in the middle and his tail started to wag as he could see that something was going on.
Excited, he climbed to his feet, headed for the group, and then just when it looked like he too might raise a paw to put on top of the pile, he jumped, landing with both paws on the pile and letting his whole body weight fall on the group, collapsing the structure and eliciting more than a few grunts as they struggled to take the weight.
“Hawk,” Jen protested. “That’s not how this works.”
Hawk just chuffed, still excited, and jumped at Jen, licking her face while Jen giggled and struggled to keep him away.
“I think that counts,” Stella said. To Tad she added, “I think we better head out of here. You haven’t slept in far too long and it’s way past Jen’s bed time.”
“It’s Christmas,” Jen protested, but she didn’t sound serious. Tad could tell she was every bit as exhausted as he was.
“I don’t even know where to go,” Tad admitted. “Did you ever get that safe house set up?”
“I did. Come on, let me take you two dreamwalking for a change.” She offered a hand to Tad and another to Jen, and when they took it she grinned at them and said, “Remember to jump.”
Then, without giving either of them time to reply, she changed the channel.
14
Sunday, 25th December 2016
12:36 (Local Time)
Looking out over his city had become a soothing experience for Elias. This was where he belonged, standing high over his domain. He wondered if this was how his many times removed great grandfather, Zeus, would have felt when looking down on the mortals from Mount Olympus.
Movement at the front of the building caught his attention, and he looked down to the street level to see the distant shape of a large black car pulling up at the entrance.
“It’s about time,” he muttered, before moving his attention elsewhere and continuing his appreciation for the view. This was a calming exercise, and right now, he drastically needed it.
Despite that exercise, his impatience made the next five minutes drag endlessly, and he was grateful when he heard the knock on his door.
“Enter,” he called, slipping a touch of Authority into his voice to remind the people waiting just who they were dealing with.
There was a barely audible click followed by the sounds of footsteps on polished stone, but he waited until the door closed again before he spoke.
“Care to explain yourself?” he asked without turning, voice cold.
“Funny, that was going to be my first question.”
The sharp response pulled Elias’ attention from the city around him and erased the efforts of his calming exercises. He turned to face his guest, and some of his anger must have shown on his expression because while his guest tried to put on a strong face, she couldn’t meet his eye.
Pamela Rosi, the President of the United States, stared at the statues, at the desk of Zeus, at the views, and even at the floor. But the so called most powerful woman in the world could not bring herself to meet his gaze.
“What did you just say?” Elias asked, enjoying her micro flinch at his words.
“You keep pulling me away from my duties at a moment’s notice and it’s causing no end of trouble. I’m the President, Elias. I can’t drop everything every time you call. It’s stopping me from being as effective as I need to be to enact our plans.”
“Oh, so it’s my fault that you’re failing miserably at the tasks I set for you? It’s my fault that you have missed every single deadline you were given? And it’s my fault that you’ve lost control of your attack dog in the UK and given the Prime Minister the ammunition he needs to take the moral high ground in the coming war? Is that what you’re telling me, Pamela?”
He tried to keep his tone neutral, but he couldn’t quite control the volume of his voice as his words spiked his anger. Pamela flinched from every question and finally she looked him in t
he eye.
“No, Elias. That’s not what I mean. I just—”
“You were just making excuses. That is below you, Pamela. You sit on the Eidolon Council. The least you can do is be honest and own up to your mistakes.”
“Yes Elias,” the woman muttered, her spirit broken.
Elias let her wallow in that feeling for the time it took him to walk to his desk and lean against the cool marble. Once he was settled, he asked, “What happened with Mr Campbell?”
“He acted on his own and changed the mission. He was given another target to hit last night, but he ignored that and did his own thing. I haven’t been able to speak with him, but I heard he’s decided we’re not doing enough to push his message.”
“And what message is that?” Elias asked.
“That Dream is evil, that anything related to it needs to be destroyed, and that there’s no place in this world for people who think otherwise.”
Elias sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. What was wrong with people, why couldn’t they think through the consequences of their actions?
“How long have you known that his views were this... extreme?”
“Since the beginning,” Pamela admitted. “But I thought we had a handle on it. Something horrible happened to his girlfriend the night of the Merging and she took her own life as a result. He blames dreamwalkers for that and thanks to some skilful manipulation from an FBI agent, he has seen only further proof of dreamwalker corruption ever since. The man manipulated him until Kuruk wholeheartedly believed that Dream could lead to the collapse of the world as we know it. He thinks he’s making the hard choices for people he considers too weak to act.”
“Including you?”
“Including me,” Pamela admitted reluctantly.
“This is a huge mistake,” Elias said. “Don’t forget our end goal. We aren’t fighting to turn the world against anything Dream related, we are fighting to secure a resource that needs to be in eidolon control. Humans aren’t equipped to handle that level of power. In that at least Kuruk is right, they’d destroy the world with it. But we can not have people hating Dream or that power will be lost to us as well because no one will tolerate us using it.”