10

by James Phelan

  ‘Yeah, why?’ Sam said, coughing and sitting up, the dream still pulling at the back of his mind.

  Was I flying? Or falling?

  ‘I thought you’d be down in the lobby by now,’ the Professor said.

  ‘The lobby?’ Sam swung his legs around and, carrying the phone, shot over to the window and parted the heavy curtains. It was bright daylight outside and the Parisian street below was abuzz with activity.

  ‘It’s eleven thirty, we must leave soon,’ the Professor said.

  Eleven thirty!

  ‘Right, I’m nearly ready, see you down there in a minute,’ Sam said, hanging up and hastily picking his Stealth Suit up from the floor.

  His hair was sticking up in a mess and he tried to smooth it down as he ran down the corridor to the elevator.

  I’m going to make a great first impression on the Council.

  ‘Ah … now this is good coffee,’ Sam said to the Professor as they walked along, two Guardians up front and two behind. Sam adjusted his sunglasses in the mid-morning sunshine and was pleased that no-one seemed to recognise him today.

  Hopefully some more exciting news has replaced my antics in Berlin by now.

  Sam decided that he liked Paris. He admired the picture-perfect streets as the Professor prepped him for their meeting with the Council of Dreamers.

  ‘How many Dreamers make up the Council?’ Sam asked.

  ‘Nearly two hundred, and they usually only meet once a year,’ the Professor replied.

  ‘Always here?’

  ‘No, but the Leadership meets here monthly—that’s twelve men and women who have the overall authority for the Council’s decisions.’

  ‘Twelve? Not thirteen?’ Sam asked with a grin.

  ‘Not everyone thinks that thirteen is such a lucky number,’ the Professor said.

  ‘Oh. And you’re part of the Leadership?’

  ‘Yes, as I head the education programs at each of the Academy’s campuses.’

  ‘Each? There’s more than one?’

  ‘The Swiss Alps and London campuses make up one quadrant.’ The Professor turned to him as they stopped at an intersection. ‘And the other three quadrants have a couple of campuses in their respective areas—over seven thousand students across eight countries.’

  The Professor looked at him sideways, said, ‘Sam, be prepared that many in the greater Council will be disbelieving of what you have to say, of what you’ve done. They may mock you, they will question your abilities, they might attack your credibility.’

  ‘I’ll be OK …’

  They crossed the road.

  ‘There’s one man, Mac, the deputy chairman, American … he can be hard to deal with, at times. He’s quite vocal and he leads a group of Dream Gate sceptics.’

  ‘They don’t believe it exists?’

  ‘They see it as purely a legend, a myth that developed over the centuries. There have been false claims in the past, about searching and finding the Gate, and of the last 13. None of which turned out to be true, obviously.’

  ‘Until me.’

  ‘Until you. But there are those like Mac, who may believe in the mythology, but don’t accept that it’s actually a real, viable thing to discover.’

  ‘And what about da Vinci’s Bakhu machine?’

  ‘The wider Council will only learn about that today, hence the need for this special meeting and our appearance there. But some of them will think we’re chasing ghosts.’

  ‘I’m sure I can handle this guy—Mac, was it?’

  ‘Yes. But you only know the half of it,’ the Professor explained as they crossed in front of a Metro station and turned into another elegant street. ‘His group, about sixty or so of the Councillors, want you and the rest of the 13 used for other … applications.’

  ‘I don’t like the sound of that.’

  ‘Hmmm. He’d like you all put to work, so to speak,’ the Professor explained as they crossed another tree-lined avenue. ‘Train you and the 13 to be able to steer your dreams, to better see the future, to prevent things from happening, like, say, another 9/11.’

  ‘Well, that doesn’t sound like too bad an idea,’ Sam said.

  ‘True, although I have seen other good Dreamers, how would you put it … go nuts,’ the Professor said. ‘They start out with good intentions, preventing crimes and atrocities, and then they get lost—they end up becoming addicted to steering dreams and succumb to the darkness that comes with that.’

  ‘Darkness?’ Sam said.

  They finally stopped at an intersection as traffic streamed by, all screeching tires and tooting horns.

  ‘Predicting which stocks will rise tomorrow, which horse will win the next race, which political candidate to befriend because you know in thirty years’ time that they will become President—that kind of power changes a person. I’ve seen it happen to the best people. Making millions of dollars then falling into power plays and political manipulations … it’s a slippery slope.’

  Sam sighed.

  This Dreamer stuff just keeps getting more complicated.

  ‘Well,’ the Professor said, following the Guardians ahead. ‘Let’s just wait and see where this Dreaming leads us.’ He turned to smile at Sam. ‘We’re here.’

  22

  ‘This is it?’ Sam asked as they entered a little restaurant.

  There were a few patrons, most of them sitting alone and eating lunch. The man closest to Sam was plucking garlic snails from their shells and slurping them down. Sam felt queasy just watching him. ‘I mean, I thought you’d have some kind of awesome meeting place, you know, like a palace or something.’

  ‘We are not quite there yet. This merely takes us to the tunnel,’ the Professor said. They walked through the dining room and into the kitchen. Pots and plans clattered and staff bustled around, all seemingly oblivious to the Professor and Sam and the four massive Guardians passing through their midst.

  ‘Tunnel? To where?’ Sam asked.

  ‘There,’ the Professor said, pointing out a window to the rear lane. There was something poking out above the buildings at the end of the street, something familiar. ‘Is that awesome enough for you?’

  ‘No way!’ Sam said as he saw Paris’ most famous landmark—the Eiffel Tower. A shudder ran through Sam as he recalled a faint memory from his dream that morning.

  Was I up there in my dream? Did I fall from the top?

  ‘Way,’ the Professor replied with a chuckle. ‘Our Council headquarters are in an underground chamber that was once part of an old chalk mine, running right underneath the Eiffel Tower, which served as an early part for our operations.’

  ‘For what kind of operations?’ Sam could hardly contain his curiosity.

  ‘To keep track of dreams. As a giant antenna, if you will, to monitor the Dreamscape,’ the Professor explained as they walked down an ancient stone spiral staircase.

  ‘You mean how people are dreaming, that kind of thing?’ Sam asked.

  ‘Yes, watching for any unusual changes in the Dreamscape, the types of dreams and so on.’

  ‘And you can monitor that globally?’

  ‘To a degree. We can see many images of dreams which combine to show the bigger picture, so that we can gauge what kind of dreaming is going on. For over a hundred years the antennas were our main way of capturing trends in dreams around the world. Until Jedi brought his new technology online. He uses satellites and so on now.’

  ‘That’s what he needs all the game consoles for? And all that power? That is so cool.’

  ‘It’s one of the many functions Betsy serves. And yes,’ the Professor said, chuckling, ‘it is pretty cool. Now watch your step down here, the floor’s a little slippery.’

  ‘This place looks really old,’ Sam said.

  ‘Some of these mines date back hundreds of years,’ the Professor said. ‘There are around three hundred kilometres of mine tunnels running under the city.’

  Sam looked around at the carved walls, the arching ceiling and the da
rk tunnels branching off into the gloom as they passed.

  ‘Is this how the Council get in as well?’ Sam asked, in his mind’s eye imagining over a hundred guys like the Professor all shuffling along the same worn floor under his feet.

  ‘Yes,’ the Professor said. ‘Although there are entrances and exits at each point of the compass. But everyone accesses the chambers via these tunnels, for safety and secrecy, of course.’

  They came to a heavy steel door, which the Guardians opened for them. Ahead was a vast cavern which stretched into darkness. As they walked further in, the way ahead became illuminated by LED strip lighting.

  He could hear the Council before he could see it—the hum of a large number of people talking. Ahead, another huge steel door was set into the rock walls.

  This is gonna be like talking in front of the whole school assembly.

  The Guardians stopped at the door, and held it open for them to walk through. ‘That’s as far as they go,’ the Professor said as he and Sam continued on. ‘The Council does not reveal its business to the outside world until it’s ready.’

  ‘Not even to the Guardians?’

  The Professor shook his head. They faced another door, this one smaller and modern, with a scanner which read the Professor’s fingerprint. The door clicked open.

  ‘Remember, Sam, don’t worry if anyone doubts or questions you—just be honest and be yourself.’

  The Professor brought Sam into the Council’s meeting room. There were eleven men and women at the front, seated at a raised table—the Council Leadership. The Professor took his seat among them. Over a hundred people were seated around in a tiered semi-circular amphitheatre, all looking down at him attentively, expectantly. Sam recognised several faces, business tycoons and politicians, a couple of sportspeople, prominent scientists, a member of a royal family and even a famous movie director. Dreamers and Council members, all of them.

  Wow.

  ‘Friends,’ the Professor’s voice boomed from where he stood on a little timber podium, the acoustics in the cavern such that the back row could hear a pin drop. ‘This is Sam. It is his dreams that are leading us to the rest of the last 13, and together, their dreams are enabling us to find that which the prophecy foretold.’

  Murmurs spread throughout the assembled crowd, echoing from the walls.

  ‘Please,’ the Chairman of the Council said, ‘let’s hear the Professor out.’

  ‘Thank you—’

  ‘This is our one, last hope?’ a big guy with a bald head said. ‘This boy?’

  Sam stood up a little straighter.

  That’s gotta be Mac.

  ‘Come now, Professor, if this truly is the time for us to find the Dream Gate, it would not be left in the hands of a teenager.’

  ‘It’s not the age of the Dreamer that matters, Mac, you know that,’ the Professor said. ‘It’s the age of the dreams.’

  Mac looked a little chastened then, Sam was pleased to see.

  ‘Besides,’ the Professor said to all in the room, ‘Sam has proven himself, and more than once already.’

  ‘We’ve all seen the news reports from the Berlin Zoo,’ Mac said. ‘Not to mention the destruction in New York and Rome. Sam is too young and inexperienced for the task ahead—this is a job for skilled Dreamers with Guardians by their side.’

  ‘I’d like to point out,’ Sam said, stepping up to the platform next to the Professor, ‘that none of that was me. Yes, I was there—but all the destruction, all those who have … not made it, that has been at the hands of others.’

  ‘Thank you, Sam,’ the Chairman said. ‘For the assembly, can you tell us who those others are?’

  ‘Hans and his rogue German Guardians,’ Sam said, ‘As well as Stella from the Enterprise, and of course, Solaris.’

  The uproar was both immense and unexpected. Sam took a step closer to the Professor for support.

  Tough crowd. I can tell this isn’t going to go well.

  23

  Those seated closest to Mac were shouting down Sam’s comments, the rest of the Councillors joining in to argue in Sam’s favour.

  ‘Silence, please, silence!’ the Chairman said, rising to his feet. When the room finally quietened down, he sat back down. ‘We know that Sam has already come up against Solaris twice.’

  The murmur began again but this time it ebbed away quickly, followed by some whispers and glances.

  ‘And the Enterprise?’ a woman asked. ‘I cannot believe that they have done what is being reported.’

  ‘I’m afraid the evidence says otherwise,’ the Professor said. ‘You have all received my report on this. Two German Guardians were killed in the underground complex at the Berlin Zoo and they were killed by rogue Enterprise Agents. We are building further evidence of Stella’s activities in Rome and New York.’

  ‘And if we’re to believe all this,’ Mac said with a casual wave of the hand, ‘he’s come out of those encounters with barely a scratch. How?’

  The Professor looked to Sam to answer.

  ‘Well, I survived,’ Sam said, ‘but others didn’t. Among them, Sebastian and Tobias of the Academy.’ The nerves that usually overcame him when talking at the front of class settled down, and he felt calm and collected. He made eye contact with many of those around him. He wanted to be sure they were listening.

  Most faces looked sympathetic.

  ‘And these “Gears”?’ the Chairman asked. ‘Sam, can you tell us where you are at with locating all thirteen?’

  ‘At the moment, we have one from Rome,’ Sam said, ‘and the key from inside the Star of Egypt.’

  ‘And Solaris?’ the Chairman continued.

  ‘He—he has another Gear, taken from me in Berlin.’

  The Chairman nodded. ‘And how many Dreamers have you found so far?’

  Sam looked to the Professor for guidance but he just looked at Sam with trusting eyes.

  ‘A few,’ Sam said carefully.

  ‘A few?’

  ‘The number is growing as I dream,’ Sam said.

  Mac gave Sam a terse look and the Chairman leaned forwards.

  ‘Sam,’ he said, ‘do you feel that you can continue to have these dreams?’

  ‘I think so, yes,’ Sam said. ‘I’m only just learning about all this. It’s all so … new.’

  ‘And do you feel confident in carrying on your mission to get the Gears?’

  ‘For what it’s worth,’ Sam said, ‘yes—I can do this.’

  The Chairman nodded and turned to speak to a woman to his left as Mac whispered to those beside him.

  ‘Sam,’ the woman asked, ‘how is it you have gone out on your own against Solaris?’

  ‘Not always alone, ma’am,’ Sam replied. ‘Especially not at first, and it’s happened by accident, it wasn’t planned that way.’

  ‘We heard about New York,’ she said. ‘And Italy. But Germany—it was just you and another of the 13, another teen no less, up against Solaris, correct?’

  ‘Yes,’ Sam said. ‘And the Enterprise and the German Guardians, trying to get Xavier and me. Xavier’s father, Dr Dark had been with us but he had to lead Hans and his—’

  That drew the loudest response so far. Mac’s people began shouting and pointing, which led to more arguing. It took a full five minutes for the Chairman to be heard and for the din to die down.

  ‘Please,’ the Chairman said to the Council. ‘The Council cannot continue like this!’

  Still, the room was not silent, with angry glances and murmured insults flying back and forth.

  ‘We accept that there is a breakaway element of the Guardians, that is not in dispute,’ the Chairman said. ‘And Dr Dark has verified it. It’s only a pity that he could not attend this meeting to speak to the Council directly.’

  ‘The Enterprise—Agents of theirs, involved in a shoot-out?’ Mac said, standing up and interrupting the chairman. ‘I’m not alone when I say that I find that impossible to believe. Impossible!’

  ‘It was Stell
a,’ Sam said. ‘I know it was her because I—’

  ‘This is ridiculous,’ another female Councillor said, her tone full of fury. ‘I move to suspend this meeting!’

  Bickering swept through the ranks of Councillors until the Professor raised his arms for silence. Sam felt as though every face was turned his way and all were waiting for him to respond.

  ‘OK,’ Sam said.

  The silence that followed was eventually broken by the Chairman, ‘Sam, what do you mean, “OK”?’

  ‘I mean,’ Sam said, ‘that some people will believe what they like. I’ve told you what I saw. I know who was there. If I’m not going to be believed, then that’s the way it is.’

  ‘If I may … Mac, your reaction before intrigues me,’ the Professor said. ‘Do you care to expand on it, enlighten us?’

  ‘No.’ Mac looked at the Professor.

  ‘You see,’ the Professor continued, ‘Dark went to Hans, who he had assumed, being his old friend, would offer him safety—’

  ‘Drop it, old man,’ Mac said, fire in his eyes.

  ‘Well,’ the Professor said, not put off by Mac’s rising anger. ‘I’d like to, so I am sure we would all like to hear what it is you have to say about Hans. He was your business partner, after all …’

  Mac stood up. He looked to those seated near him, who then rose in support. A few others scattered around the chamber stood also, including three of the twelve on the Leadership panel. Over forty people in total, Sam calculated.

  ‘Chairman,’ Mac said. ‘Now that we seem to be at odds with what’s happening and who is to blame, I believe this is an opportune moment to withdraw from the Council. I wish you all the best of luck in the coming race.’

  And with that, Mac led his followers from the chamber, leaving behind a stunned Chairman with what was left of his Council. Sam looked to the Professor and saw that he looked both shocked and worried.

  I guess he wasn’t expecting that to happen.

  24

  ‘What now?’ Sam asked the Professor, who had come down from the Leadership seats to sit with Sam.