Borderlands (The Dreams of Reality Book 5)

by Gareth Otton

  Norman sat up straighter at that news, suddenly excited.

  “Tell me you have your pet reporter taking advantage of this,” he begged, hoping Stella would answer in the affirmative.

  “She’s not my pet anything, but yes, Lizzie and her people are out covering this. Somehow she talked Tad into getting her key people dreamcatchers of their own so they’re covering a lot of ground right now.”

  “It would still be worth getting other people on this,” Amelia pointed out. “I will get in touch with some people I know and see if we can get the press riled up. We need to take advantage of this as soon as possible.”

  “Do that,” Norman agreed, not needing to give her any more permission than that to duck out of the meeting room with her phone in her hand. Turning back to Stella, he added, “Have you got Tony’s ghosts helping with your efforts tonight?”

  Stella shook her head impatiently, like she was eager to be off the call.

  “There’s been no time to get them,” she said.

  “Make the time,” Norman pressed. “With the news coverage on these attacks, we want ghosts, dreamwalkers, soldiers with dreamcatchers and normal people working together to turn these attacks back. This is the worst attack on British soil since World War Two and if we want to somehow turn this shit-show into a positive, then we need to take advantage of the fact that we are getting a lot of eyeballs on us right now. We’re only going to pull through this thing if we can start working together, and the best way for people to accept that fact is to see the results of us working together.”

  “Prime Minister, I need to go,” Stella said.

  “Make the time, Stella,” Norman ordered before she could shut off her connection. “I can’t understate how important this is.”

  “I will,” she answered, and then her window vanished and only the other military advisers who had filled the screen with her remained. However, they were looking every bit as impatient as Stella had been, so Norman let them go as well. The last one was just signing off when Amelia re-entered the room.

  “I’ve lit a fire under the right people and we should see some serious mobilisation soon. They were active anyway with what’s going on, but I’ve pointed their focus in the right direction.”

  “Good,” Norman said, then leaned back in his chair and ran his hands over his face as his mind spun up and tried to make sense of all the information he just received.

  “You know, as much as tonight sucks, this could be the best thing to happen to us,” he said, not expecting an answer from Amelia as he was thinking out loud.

  “You better not say anything like that where a reporter can hear you,” she admonished as she took a seat across the table.

  “No, I’m serious. Until now, we’ve been fighting shadows. They’ve been coming at us when we least expect them and we haven’t even been able to point the finger at the enemy and make it stick. I know the number of people who believe we are at war is growing every day, but this is what was needed to unite the country. This was a stupid mistake for them because if nothing else, it’s going to force people from all sides to work together on this thing. They’ve just dropped a massive opportunity in our lap and done a lot of the hard work for us.”

  “Which makes you wonder why they’ve done this,” Amelia pointed out, but Norman waved her off.

  “We’ll never know the answer to that, so why worry about it? Let’s focus on what’s in front of us and see how we can come out of this on top. How do we capitalise on the opportunity they’ve dropped in our laps?”

  “Get out to the ruins of parliament and get in front of a camera,” Amelia answered. “We need to show the horror of what just happened and use that to—”

  For the second time that night, their conversation was cut off mid sentence as an enormous explosion drowned out the rest of Amelia’s words. This time the sound was even louder than before and where the ground had shaken last time, this time it was like the world was ending. It was so shocking that Norman fell out of his chair.

  Alarms started going off, this time not just car alarms outside, but within the building as well. Those sirens were so loud that they stabbed into Norman’s brain and scrambled his thoughts. Before he could even think to question what was going on, the door to the conference room burst open and one of the soldiers who were part of his boosted security force barged in.

  “What’s happening?” Norman demanded.

  “We’re under attack, sir. An explosion just took out the rear—”

  Again his words were interrupted by an explosion, this one every bit as loud and just as violent. This time dust fell from the ceiling as cracks ran through the paint work and the windows rattled.

  Those explosions are getting closer, Norman thought, the cold fingers of fear taking a tight grip on his insides and making him want to shiver.

  “You need to get out of here, sir,” the soldier said even as more soldiers poured into the room, two of them securing Amelia and trying to drag her away. Norman ignored the hands of the soldier, gripping his own arm as they pulled him out of his seat, instead shouting at the soldiers manhandling his aide.

  “Where are you taking her?” he demanded.

  “The same place we’re taking you,” the soldier tugging him toward the entrance said. “We need to get to the Dream room so that we can get you out of here.”

  Norman was distracted by the wailing of sirens and the distant sound of gunfire, so it took him a second to understand what the man was telling him. Finally he realised they were taking him to the one room in the entire building where he could use his powers to flee. Like the DTHQ before its destruction, Downing street was covered in dreamcatchers that stopped Dream from crossing the boundary save for in one place. If he was going to escape, he needed to either get to that room or…

  He staggered to a stop so suddenly that even the soldier dragging him had to stop as well.

  “Sir, we need to—”

  “Don’t bother, the dreamcatchers are down,” Norman said, pulling his arm free. “I just felt the barrier drop.”

  “The explosion must have taken them out. Then you need to get out of here now,” Amelia ordered from twenty feet down the corridor where her soldiers were getting the message that they could stop dragging her away.

  “Not without you. Come on. Let’s go.”

  The soldiers let her go so that Amelia could run towards him, but there was yet another boom. The wall to Norman’s left exploded in a fiery shower of wood, stone, and other debris. Black smoke billowed out along with dust and spots of orange flame, but Norman didn’t see any of it as he was thrown from his feet across the corridor where he collided with first the soldier beside him and then the wall.

  He grunted as the air was driven from his lungs and then he must have blacked out for a second because the next thing he knew he was blinking rapidly to clear his eyes and the world seemed blurry around him. There was no one left standing in the corridor and everyone was covered in a layer of dust and debris. His ears were ringing and his head span, but he had enough presence of mind to look around frantically for Amelia even as he coughed the dust out of his lungs.

  He called her name, but his voice sounded like it was coming from under water to his own ears. He tried to stand, but instantly fell over again as the explosion had messed with the equilibrium in his inner ear and he was struggling to stop the world from spinning.

  He caught himself against the wall on the next attempt, and when he called Amelia’s name, this time his voice was a little clearer.

  “Norman?”

  The voice sounded like it came from a mile away, but when he followed the sound, he saw Amelia was only ten feet from him. She was struggling her way out from under some rubble, and there was blood streaming down her face and into her eyes. She looked dazed, but other than that, he thought she would survive.

  I need to get her to a hospital, Norman thought to himself, and he took a step forward, keeping his hand on the wall to maintain his balance. It wa
s only ten feet. He should have been able to cover the distance in a couple of steps. But his legs weren’t working correctly, and he barely managed a shuffle before he nearly fell again, once more having to catch himself on the wall.

  “Norman?” Amelia asked again, her voice much clearer this time as not only was he adapting to his situation, but she was coming out of her daze. Unfortunately there was another note that replaced the confusion in her voice, and one he liked even less. She sounded terrified.

  Hating that sound in her voice, Norman used that hatred to fuel himself and he forced himself to focus, taking a bigger step forward this time and determined to get to her side.

  He made it two small steps and was almost there when he felt an iron grip on the back of his neck and he was pulled backwards off his feet like he was a puppy being picked up by its mother. Pain ran up his neck as it was supporting the weight of his entire body, and this time when Amelia said his name, it was more of a scream than a question.

  Norman’s feet were no longer touching the floor, so he had no leverage to struggle against what was being done to him, but he turned just enough to see who held him so effortlessly. The man was a giant in a way that made Tad Holcroft look small. Covered in black lines that only added to the intimidation of his bulk, Norman didn’t think he had ever been in the presence of someone who more personified death than this man.

  “Finally, we meet,” Kuruk rumbled, his voice so deep Norman could feel it in his chest like his words were mini explosions. “I have waited a long time for this day.”

  For maybe the first time in his life, Norman didn’t have the words to reply. He racked his brain for an answer, but none came, nothing but the lizard part of his brain screaming at him that this was a dangerous situation and he needed to either fight or run like hell. Something told him that fight wouldn’t be an option against this man, so it was time to get out of here. Physical force alone would not do it though, this man was far too strong for that.

  But you’re a dreamwalker, a voice in his mind reminded him. You’ve spent a long time hiding it, but don’t go down without a fight.

  Norman agreed, but the explosion had scrambled his brain and he was struggling to figure out an idea for something to do. However, hearing Amelia cry out as more of Kuruk’s people popped into existence and dragged her to her feet forced his mind to focus, and he decided.

  There were fires all around him and with just a thought he could—

  A simple click was all it took to shatter his dreams of escape and know that he had failed both himself and Amelia. He looked down as best he could to see that the first of the handcuffs had been secured around his wrist, and a moment later, the second one closed with another click. It didn’t take a genius to guess what the designs etched into the handcuffs did, but as Norman reached for Dream and felt them heat up as they blocked him from his power, he got his confirmation soon enough.

  Kuruk’s rumbling laugh vibrated his arm and made Norman grit his teeth in pain as the vibration rattled his brain.

  “Come now, we can’t be having any of that, can we? No, you’re going to meet your end like nature intended, cut off from that evil power that you covet so much.”

  “Power you use freely,” Norman spat, pointing out the hypocrisy in Kuruk’s words. Kuruk’s smile faded.

  “I hate every one of these nasty things on my skin and I can’t wait for the day that I can cut them from my body and be done with them once and for all,” Kuruk snarled, pulling Norman in close enough that he could feel his hot breath upon his face. “Filthy bastards like you are only interested in power, so I don’t expect you to understand what it’s like to ever want to be rid of it.”

  “I understand that you’re crazy and will say anything to justify your actions,” Norman said.

  “Justify my actions? Look at you? A filthy politician who has spent his whole life hiding the evil in you so that you can justify your own actions. You try to pretend like everything you do is for the good of your country, but I know your kind. Dreamwalker and politician alike, corrupted by power and wanting only more of it.”

  “You’re wrong,” Norman pressed. “Of the two of us, it’s clear who the monster is. I’m not the one with the blood of innocents on my hands.”

  The accusation infuriated the giant and for a second Norman feared that Kuruk would kill him for it, but he was saved from that fate when another man popped into existence beside Kuruk and caught his attention.

  “Sir, if we have the Prime Minister, we should go. Reinforcements are arriving and—”

  “Yes, Sam. You’re right. Thanks for reminding me,” Kuruk interrupted. Turning back to the Prime Minister, he said, “It’s time to go. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you yet. You have one last purpose to serve before I end you.”

  “I won’t do anything—” Norman tried to say, but Kuruk shook him to shut him up and then pointed to the men holding Amelia.

  “She’s a filthy traitor who continued to serve this prick even after he revealed his true colours. She’s forfeited her right to breathe. Kill her.”

  “No!” Norman screamed, struggling as best he could to get free, but all he managed was to turn enough so that he could meet Amelia’s wide, terrified eyes one last time and realise just how much he had let her down before the man standing behind her twisted her head sharply.

  The loud crack did something to Norman’s brain and he let out a primal scream like nothing that had ever come from him before. The handcuffs on his wrist heated up to impossible levels as bright light poured from the dreamcatchers engraved into them, but Norman didn’t feel the heat or the accompanying pain as he continued to scream and thrash.

  Suddenly he was falling as Kuruk lost his grip. Norman landed in a heap, unable to catch himself. But he wasn’t thinking any more. He was a broken animal with a single purpose, to get to Amelia’s side and tell her how sorry he was. Despite the crippling heat coming from the dreamcatcher on his wrist, the handcuffs held and there was nothing he could do but crawl through the rubble to the body of his closest friend. He barely got to touch her before he was pulled from the floor again.

  Instantly he knew it was over. The light on the bracelets went out, but they continued to glow orange from the heat that had been poured into them. His hands were a ruined mess, but Norman didn’t even feel that as his mind was already broken. All he could see was the woman on the floor, her head turned backwards and the terrified expression on her face. All he could think about was the fact that this was his fault. He was a dreamwalker. He was the Prime Minister. In many ways, he was one of the most powerful people on the planet. How had he not stopped this? How had he not saved her?

  Forcefully he was dragged away, and then the world shifted as Kuruk dreamwalked to a new location. They arrived in what looked like a warehouse, but Norman didn’t get to see much of it before he was thrown into a corner like he was a bag of rubbish being chucked to the curb. He landed in another heap and the air rushed from his lungs again, but once more he didn’t feel the pain. He was beyond pain now. His broken mind was locked on the memory of his failure.

  Kuruk kicked him with the toe of his boot to flip him over and draw his attention to the giant man. Though he spoke, his words didn’t register with Norman, whose mind was filled with only self loathing and hatred for this man. Before those two emotions grew to such an extreme that his mind shut itself down in order to protect itself from what he was feeling, he had one last thought.

  He hoped that Tad and Stella would make this man pay dearly for every wrong he had committed, every life he had taken, and most of all, for Amelia.

  I’m sorry, he thought, before the pain and guilt of losing his friend became too much to bear, and he gave in to his despair.

  35

  Saturday, 31st December 2016

  04:33

  The TV went dark, and not a single person around the table moved their attention from the screen. Out of the periphery of his vision, Tad spotted the flickering white glow of shock on
all the auras in the room, but he couldn’t blame them. He was wearing the same colour himself.

  After one of the longest nights of his life, jumping from city to city, fight to fight, and travelling the length and width of the British Isles many times over, Tad had been exhausted when the fighting came to a close. He was ready for bed, not the news that Ten Downing street had been destroyed, that Amelia was dead, and the Prime Minister was missing.

  It was a shock to the system that left him stunned, unable to process how such a thing had happened. Part of him knew Kuruk had been doing the same thing he’d been doing since the start of this war, making them look in one direction when instead it was nothing but a distraction for something much worse somewhere else.

  However, with everything they had witnessed that night, all the lives they had lost, all the places that had been destroyed, Tad knew that while this might be part of Kuruk’s plan, it had not been his only goal. He had tried to do as much damage as possible to sink the morale of the British public to an all-time low, and to prove that nothing was safe from him.

  Taking that message to heart, Tad hadn’t wasted a second in securing what he held most dear in the world. Therefore, within half an hour of the news breaking, Tad had his daughter, Stella, Tony, Growler, Hawk and Lizzie by his side at the new HQ where he could keep an eye on them. Jen had brought the Burmans along with Amber, which settled Tony’s worries. Miles was already in the HQ co-ordinating the defence, and Mitena was also on site so that she could help fortify gaps in dreamcatcher defences when needed.

  It was that same group who were packed into the meeting room, staring at the TV after the shocking broadcast they just witnessed had already ended. Lizzie had come to them twenty minutes ago, telling them that a video Kuruk had put out was going viral over the internet. They had gathered to watch it and Tad almost wished he hadn’t.

  Kuruk was spouting his usual nonsense about the evil of Dream, the pain and destruction he would bring to anyone who dared have anything to do with it, and his warning to the people of the world that any thoughts of engaging Dream would not be tolerated. He compared Dream to a cancer that was poisoning the world and needed to be removed because, if left unchecked, it would lead to the end of the human race.