Proxy (The Dreams of Reality Book 1)

by Gareth Otton

  Another young one? She doesn’t know if she can take yet another child. She keeps that fact to herself.

  “What’s his name?”

  “Gideon Jordan.” He picks up a file from the chair next to him and hands it over. “You’ll find everything there is to know about him in here other than his current whereabouts.”

  She nods and accepts the file. She’s eager to open it and get started, to finish this business once and for all.

  “Is that all?” she asks.

  He sighs and nods. “Eleven years and not one smile from you. What a pity. I bet you have a beautiful smile.” He waves his hand dismissively. “Fine. Go. Bring me the girl. And no more procrastinating. I want her here by Saturday.”

  She thinks to tell him about the girl’s new protection. She wants to tell him it will be more difficult this time. She knows he won’t care.

  Instead she nods and walks away.

  As she retraces her steps and climbs back in her van, a smile grows. It's the first one in a long time, but she can’t help it.

  This is the first time she has been able to imagine this ending. All she has to do is take two more kids, and this nightmare is over. She has no illusions of going back to her old life. She doesn’t deserve it after what she has done. But she no longer has to see him anymore. She would even be free to kill herself.

  That last thought allows her grin to fully form. She had been putting that off for so long in fear of what he would do to her family in recompense. Now she would be free to end it.

  With that longing thought of death still playing through her mind and making her smile, she starts the engine and pulls out of her parking spot. It’s nearly over and she has work to do.

  For the first time in her life she is eager to kidnap a child. She leaves the garage and instead of heading back to her hotel, she heads for Jennifer Larson.

  Tad returned to the waking world the moment the door exploded inward.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Stella demanded. She was beyond angry. He didn’t get chance to answer as Dinah spoke first.

  “Please. You can’t say anything,” she begged.

  He was looking at Stella and saw the sudden change in her expression. She was still angry, but incredulity was winning through. They were the first words Dinah said in her presence.

  “I’m serious,” Dinah said again, drawing his attention back from Stella. “You don’t know what will happen if you do.”

  This woman who seemed so dangerous before was suddenly pleading with him. There were tears in her eyes and Tad thought she teetered on the edge of a breakdown. Had it been anyone else he might feel sorry for them.

  He’d had full access to her memories. All he had to do was think about what he wanted to know and her mind helped him fill in the blanks. He had seen her life working for the Mossad, the joy that followed it with her husband, and more importantly, the nightmare that was the last eleven years.

  Those eleven years would never make him feel sorry for this woman. He couldn’t keep the sneer from his face.

  “Please,” she begged again. “It’s almost over. If you tell anyone now, it’ll have all been for nothing. Everything I did—”

  “It’s already all for nothing. What’s wrong with you?”

  “I had to. You don’t know what he would do—”

  Again he interrupted her. “I’ve just been in your head, I know the stakes.”

  She stared at him, struggling to speak as her mind dealt with the shock of what he’d done.

  “You were the one in the alley that night, not your daughter.”

  The mention of Jen made Tad want to kill her and he was glad Stella was in the room. Without her to witness the act, he might have taken the opportunity.

  “Of course it was me. She’s just a little girl, you monster.”

  “Not the first to do something unbelievable though.”

  “That doesn’t make it any better.”

  “Anyone want to fill me in on what’s happening here?” Stella was over her shock and her anger returned. She looked from Tad to Dinah, no longer wanting to throw him out but annoyed at being left out of the loop.

  “Please,” Dinah begged one last time. Tad just shook his head.

  “This ends tonight. You’re not taking anyone else to him.”

  “You can’t stop him,” she snapped angrily. “You must have seen that. Of all the Proxies I have taken over the years, he’s beyond any of them. All those new powers you play with now, he was doing that back at the beginning of all this. He’s beyond you. If you can’t stop him, you might as well keep quiet and gift my family some safety. Otherwise no one wins.”

  “You call that winning, Dinah? All those people… those children. That’s not winning.” She flinched when he said children and it robbed her of her ability to respond.

  “Dinah?” Stella asked in confusion.

  Tad waited a few seconds while he stared at Dinah, then turned back to Stella. He didn’t want to tell her anything. He’d had as much as he cared to take from her for one day. She was willing to kick him out of this investigation, why shouldn’t he do the same to her?

  Because I still need her, he thought. As much as it would be good to leave her high and dry after her treatment of him, what Dinah said was right. Her employer was beyond him. Even through Dinah’s memories he felt this man’s incredible power. Tad had never felt anything close.

  If this nightmare was going to end, he needed the police on his side. That meant he needed Stella.

  “D.I. Martin, meet Dinah Mizrahi. She used to work for the Mossad until about twenty years ago when she left Israel to come to the UK with her husband. Eleven years ago she started kidnapping people for money. She doesn’t remember how many people she has kidnapped as there have been so many.” Turning back to her he sneered again and said, “Amongst their number were over thirty children. They’re all dead now.”

  “How do you know this?” Stella asked.

  Tad didn’t answer, just took a few steps closer to Dinah and leaned in close. “If I were you, I’d cooperate. The only protection left for your family is through the police. You’ll need to tell her everything you know for that.”

  He was about to walk away when suddenly he stopped and looked back. “Who is he? I never got his name?”

  She opened her mouth to speak but then just as quickly closed it. “I can’t tell you. He’ll kill them.”

  “He’ll go after them anyway. From what I’ve seen, he won’t risk them being alive.”

  “He’s more likely to leave them alone if he thinks I haven’t co-operated.”

  “How will he ever know?”

  She snorted. “His ghosts tell him everything.”

  “There aren’t any ghosts here now.”

  “Then his people would tell him the rest. You don’t realise who this man is. He has people everywhere.”

  Tad just shook his head and turned away.

  “All yours D.I. Martin,” he said as he tried to push past Stella. She flinched away from his tone, then reached out to stop him.

  “Tad I—”

  He didn’t let her finish. He wasn’t interested. After what he had just seen he needed to be as far away from Dinah as he could get. He’d also had enough of Stella for one day.

  “I thought you said I was done here,” he snapped. With just a shake of the arm he pulled free of her grip and he ignored the hurt look in her eye as he stormed from the room.

  Maggie was waiting for him outside. Wisely she said nothing, just followed him through the station and out to his car.

  In spite of having a literal ghost in the car with him, it was his memories that haunted him. He had no idea what that man had been doing with Proxies, but Tad was sure it had something to do with his increased powers and the strange things going on recently.

  More than that, he saw the faces of the Proxies themselves. There were far too many to remember them all and yet more than enough for him to never forget.


  In his life he had dealt with ghosts that turned evil thanks to their acts in life and the lack of a Proxy in death. He had seen horrors that most people could not imagine whilst dealing with those ghosts. Yet he knew without a shadow of a doubt that this night he had met a bigger monster than all of them in Dinah Mizrahi.

  What worried him was that his future held an even bigger one yet. Whether as his victim or as someone trying his best to stop him, Tad knew he would have to meet her employer at some point. Running was no good when he was facing someone that powerful. He’d always be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.

  He didn’t come out of his thoughts until he was home and saw Jen again.

  She was the next on the list. Dinah’s employer knew about her and wanted her by tomorrow night. What would happen when Dinah failed to show? Would he come after her himself?

  The thought terrified him and he knew he needed to deal with the man first.

  “Tad? Are you alright?” Jen asked, worried at the look on his face. He forced himself to smile. Whatever happened, she couldn’t know about this. It was too much for a young girl.

  “Of course I am. Just a rough day. What are you doing?”

  “I was just about to watch a film.”

  “Sounds perfect. What are we watching?”

  He didn’t hear her answer. He was already slipping again, losing himself in his memories of what he had seen this night. How was he ever going to keep his girl safe?

  He was still troubled by it when the movie ended. He had no answer by the time he went to bed. He remained lost when sleep finally claimed him in the early hours of the morning.

  26

  Saturday, 29th November 2015

  08:15

  Tad woke at eight, just four hours after falling asleep.

  It was Saturday. He was running out of time, and he had lots to do. So long as Dinah’s employer was out there looking for Jen, then he would never be free of the constant worry eating him up. If he ever wanted to rest properly again, he needed to get that dealt with.

  First, he had to find out who he was dealing with, which meant getting more information. Dinah was now a dead end for that. He could try to enter her dreams again, but he got the impression she wouldn’t be sleeping anytime soon.

  If his recollection of her memories was correct, just the night before last she promised to have Jen delivered by Saturday. That meant that after today, this mystery employer might come looking for Jen himself. It gave Tad one day to do something about it.

  There had to be something he could do. He swung his legs out of bed and paced around the room. He wouldn’t leave this bedroom until he had a solution.

  He started by going over everything he learnt the night before and tried to find a clue. That meant going through Dinah’s memories again, which wasn’t pleasant. He struggled to think back on everything he learnt from her, everything she had done.

  It was useless.

  He tried to come at it from a different angle. He was still thinking about her memories but this time he concentrated on everything she knew about her employer.

  This strange man wanted Proxies. He was powerful enough to get information on Dinah that no one should know, and he had people everywhere. None of that information led Tad to anything helpful. He was growing frustrated. How could he save Jen before tonight if—

  His train of thought stopped as abruptly as his pacing.

  Her employer had been insistent that Dinah get Jen as soon as possible because he wanted her to find someone else. This other person wasn’t a Proxy, but instead someone of interest.

  It was thin, but if he could find this person, figure out what was so important and why this man wanted him, then maybe he could find out what to do next.

  Suddenly excited, he rushed about his morning routine. After a shower, a shave, and a change of clothes, he felt like a new man. It was that man that greeted Jen and his ghosts in the kitchen.

  The clock on the wall said it was ten o’clock, later than he normally slept in. That coupled with his behaviour the night before had all his ghosts looking at him funny and Jen asking if he was alright.

  He was about to tell her he was fine and everything was okay, but with his new found clarity he realised he would be making the same mistakes again. He was fed up of this loop where he babied Jen and she acts out in return. It was time to change his behaviour, no matter how hard that might be.

  “Not really. Let me get a coffee and we’ll discuss it.”

  He made himself said coffee, and when he turned around, he found his ghosts waiting with Jen. He chuckled in spite of everything. He guessed it was time for a family meeting.

  “What’s going on Tad?” Miriam asked. “You were strange last night. Is it Stella? Is she getting to you?”

  Tad blinked at the question and shook his head. In the wake of everything he learnt last night, he hadn’t had time to think of Stella.

  “No. We’ve got bigger issues than D.I. Martin.”

  He started with his idea to go into Dinah’s mind for answers, giving Jen full credit which pleased her immensely. Her pleasure didn’t last.

  By the time he was done telling his story, he faced a very pale Jen and sombre ghosts.

  “So the way I figure it, we need to get moving on this, fast. I'll look for this Gideon Jordan and see where that leads us. Questions?”

  At first there was silence, then everyone talked at once.

  “One at a time.”

  Again there was silence, again everyone talked at once. Tad held up his hand to calm them, then pointed to Jen. “You first.”

  “What happens if you’re too late? Am I—”

  “I won’t be,” he answered, cutting her off and trying to sound confident. It wouldn’t do any of them any good to dwell on that question. “Next?”

  He pointed at Maggie who started to speak, but Jen butted in.

  “Hang on. You didn’t—”

  “We’ll figure this out, okay? I won't let anything happen to you.”

  For a moment she looked every bit as young and in need of protection as he always thought. Maybe he had made a mistake telling her this. After she took a deep breath and got hold of herself, she nodded to tell him she was fine, proof of how strong she could be.

  No matter how he tried to make it otherwise, she did not live the life of a normal twelve-year-old. She had been exposed to things no child should face, and she had come out stronger on the other side. Maybe there was something to what she and Maggie had been telling him. Maybe he needed to start trusting her.

  He stayed at the table for the next ten minutes answering questions before he said enough was enough. He needed to start looking. Jen said she wanted to help and for once he let her.

  “I need you to look on the internet for anything you can find on this Gideon guy. Try to get creative with it, Jen. We need to find him.”

  She nodded very seriously. “Okay. What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to hit up Kate to see if she can help. Stella may no longer be on our side, but we still have one tame detective to rely on.” He looked to Miriam and asked, “You coming?”

  “No, I’ll just be a distraction. I’ll stay here and help Jen. Give Kate my love.”

  “I could do that for you,” Tony offered and earned a slap around the head for his outburst.

  Tad couldn’t help but laugh. He had missed their bickering. It was their own version of normal and it had been too long since he had seen it.

  “I’m not taking you anywhere near Kate when I need a favour from her,” Tad said. Tony looked offended but didn’t object. “Charles you coming?” Charles nodded. “I’m not even going to ask you,” Tad said to Maggie who just grinned. She wanted to check in with Kate to see how things were going with her case. It was a good job she couldn’t use a telephone or Kate wouldn’t have been getting much sleep until Mark was finally behind bars.

  “Come on then. Let’s go. Jen, you okay with this?”

&nb
sp; She looked sick but forced herself to nod. “I will be.”

  “I’m leaving you with just Miriam and Tony. If you have any problems, you let them deal with it and you run. You have your phone?” She nodded. “Is it charged?” She hesitated, then nodded again. Tad didn’t trust that look. “Make sure it’s charged and leave it switched on. If you have any problems at all, I want you to call me. I’m only a ten minute drive away. You got that?” Again she nodded.

  He stepped around the table and kissed her on the forehead.

  “I love you, Jen. I won't let anything happen, I promise.”

  She smiled and there were tears in her eyes, but she said nothing.

  He turned away, nodded to Maggie and Charles, then he was out the door, ready to start yet another busy day.

  Tad hovered over Kate’s shoulder trying to look at her computer. She gave him the look she usually saved for Tony.

  “You’re not helping, Tad? Maybe you’d be more comfortable on the other side of the desk.”

  “But I can’t see what you’re doing over there.”

  Her response came from between clenched teeth.

  “Exactly.”

  He was about to protest, but Kate was saved by a knock at the door. They both looked up from Kate’s desk to see Stella standing at the office door looking sheepish. It was annoying that even wearing the same clothes as the day before and looking as though she hadn’t slept all night, she still looked great.

  “Any chance I could steal Tad for a few minutes?” she asked Kate. It was the perfect move to get under his skin. Speaking to Kate as though she was his keeper was almost as bad as Kate answering as though she actually was.

  “Oh, God yes. Take him.”

  Tad sent one last annoyed glance Kate’s way before he decided he had best go with the program and keep Kate happy.

  “Keep an eye on her, Charles. If she finds something, I want to know as soon as possible.”

  Charles, invisible to everyone else in the room, nodded and took Tad’s place. Confident he would know what Kate knew as soon as possible, Tad stepped out of the office and joined Stella in the hall.