by Helen Harper
‘And I bumped into you?’
‘Yes. Then I woke up and some of the fog had gone. Dante was there. He said something to the guard and then picked me up and carried me out.’
I don’t move a muscle. ‘The guard knew he was there?’
‘Yes. Dante thought I was out of it but I saw him make some kind of gesture.’ She concentrates and then shows me, her thumb touching her ring finger.
I stare at it. ‘Dante did that?’
‘Yes.’
I’ve seen that gesture before. The Department thug who half-throttled me in the street made it before he started speaking. Is it some kind of secret signal? Maybe Dante learnt it and is using it against them but if that’s the case, why didn’t he tell the rest of us about it?
Esme puts a hand on her shoulder. ‘He used to work for the Mayor, Zoe.’
I shake my head. That’s proof of nothing. ‘And,’ I say, ‘he stopped when he realised how dangerous and evil the Mayor was.’
‘So he told us.’ She meets my eyes. ‘You forget that a lot happened before you showed up. Dante lurked in the forest. The few times that he came into the town, he sat in a corner and watched people.’
I saw him do that, the first time I was in the pub. I shake my head and re-focus. ‘That’s still not proof of anything.’ My protests are becoming feebler. I think of what happened with Ashley and seize upon it. ‘He’s the one who said the Department might have Ashley and would be forcing her to stay awake! He wouldn’t have done that if he was part of it.’
Esme’s expression doesn’t change. ‘What did you do when he told you that?’
I frown. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You left home, didn’t you? Even though you were terrified, you left the safety of your house and your town and travelled to Manchester.’
‘But Dante didn’t want me to do that!’ I burst out. ‘He wanted Bron and Rob to go, not me!’
‘But he knew that you would go. You wouldn’t be able to resist going after her on your own because it was your fault she was taken. You were in a strange place, on your own and entirely vulnerable.’
Except I didn’t go to Manchester on my own. I went with Rawlins. Doubt snakes through me. Dante wasn’t happy when he saw her.
‘No.’ I shake my head. ‘He was angry when he realised I was in Manchester. Really angry. There’s no way it was an act.’
‘Then he wanted to keep you to himself. Some kind of Department power-play shit.’
‘He wouldn’t do that.’
Esme sighs. ‘When was the last time you spoke to Bron? I know you had some kind of fight. Why did you argue with each other?’
I look away.
‘And,’ she continues, ‘I’m pretty certain Rob is out of the country. He travels a lot for his work. Neither of them was in a position to look for Ashley.’
If it’s true that Rob travels a lot, he would know a lot about the different zones. I could have asked him what the Department was like in other places – if I’d known. Dante didn’t mention his friend’s travels. ‘It’s coincidence,’ I say heavily. ‘Not evidence.’
Esme gives me a sad, knowing smile. ‘Dante only became friendly when you arrived, Zoe.’
‘He wasn’t friendly when I arrived. In fact, he was an arse.’
‘Until he discovered you were the dreamweaver,’ she says softly. ‘Then everything changed. He went from being Grizzly Adams to everyone’s best friend.’
I’m still not prepared to believe it. ‘He hung out on that forum! Somnolence. He’s D.’
Esme looks confused but Ashley turns even paler. ‘He reads Somnolence?’ she whispers.
‘Ash…’
She shakes her head. ‘D is Bron. His last name is Daniels.’
I frown. ‘No. Bron is B52.'
‘You’re wrong.’ The truth is written all across her face.
‘That’s stupid!’ I explode. ‘Why the hell don’t you all use your real names? And how can you be sure? That doesn’t…’ I pause. Bron apologised to me for what he wrote on Somnolence. Someone had posted a question asking if I was pretty and ‘D’ had responded: ‘If you like that sort of thing’. I’d assumed it was Dante – in fact, he’d all but confirmed it. Have I really been so wrong about everything?
‘Rob’s a good person and Dante and he are friends,’ I whisper. I’m searching desperately for reasons to defend him. ‘The first time I saw him, Rob was trying to get Dante to rise up against the Mayor!’
‘So what? Rob’s friendly and he knows the difference between right and wrong. Dante’s not like that. I keep telling you, he used to work for the Mayor, Zoe. Think about it. Why would we invite him onto the forum that was trying to subvert the Mayor?’
‘But...’ It’s possible. Dante could have been monitoring the forum. ‘Stockholm Syndrome,’ I say suddenly. ‘You’ve got Stockholm Syndrome. You’re identifying with your kidnappers. You like this Department wanker who was nice to you and you’re looking for a way to pin the blame on someone else. Dante’s not that person. He helped me free the mares! He was working with Bron to take the Mayor down!’
Esme rolls her eyes. ‘Give it up. We all wanted to trust him but the truth is staring us right in the face. Dante is the Department. He wanted the dreamweaver all to himself, probably so he could get more power. When the Department found out there was a dreamweaver, Dante misdirected them to Ashley so he could get you on side. Seducing you until you’d do what the hell he wanted you to do.’
I open my mouth to tell her it’s not true but before I can speak, a twig snaps. We all freeze and turn. There, standing in the gloom, is the man himself.
Dante folds his arms. ‘Sorry,’ he says to Ashley. ‘It wasn’t personal.’
Chapter Twenty
The caged bird sings with fearful trill.
Maya Angelou
I disapparate in a heartbeat and leap off the bed. Rawlins is on the other one, gently snoring. I shake her awake.
‘What?’ she stutters, raising a hand to ward me off.
‘We have to leave now.’
‘Eh?’
‘Dante,’ I say through gritted teeth. ‘It was Dante all along.’
She blinks at me in sleepy confusion. ‘I don’t understand.’
I curse. ‘Rawlins, he’s responsible for Ashley’s kidnapping and he knows that I know. He’s outside in your car. He’ll be here in seconds. We need to get out now.’
She stares at me, then she springs up and grabs her bag. ‘Let’s go.’
We fling open the door and run down the corridor.
‘Lift?’
Rawlins shakes her head. ‘Too slow. Take the stairs.’
We fling open the door to the emergency staircase. I’m about to rush down but she snatches my arm. ‘No. If he really is going to after you…’
‘He is.’
‘Then he’ll expect you to go down.’ She jerks her head. ‘We should go up instead.’
‘We’ll be trapped.’
‘I’m with the police, remember? Trust me on this.’
I have no choice. I give a sharp nod and pivot on my heel. The pair of us race upwards. My spine is screaming and bolts of agony tear through my body but I can’t worry about that now.
I can’t believe it. Dante. All along it was the person I felt confident about. I’m such a fucking idiot.
We reach the top floor and Rawlins wrenches open the door, her hand on her phone as we run. Sprinting back down another corridor which looks exactly like the one we just left, we start trying door handles. None of them open. Rawlins dials while I feel terror rising inside me. There’s no way out of here.
‘Travelodge, Tamar Street. Code 0.’ There’s a pause. ‘Get here now, damn it.’
I spy another door at the far end which looks different: it might be a closet. Right now, it’s the best we can do. ‘Come on.’
It takes seconds to reach it but it feels like an eternity. My heart pounds in my chest and I expect Dante to appear at any moment. We get t
o the door and push it open. There’s another flight of steps leading upwards and a faint gust of cold wind; the steps lead to the roof.
‘If we go up there, there’s nowhere we can hide.’
Rawlins looks grim. Behind us there’s a ping as the lift stops at our floor. There’s no choice. ‘Come on.’
The door clangs behind us. Rawlins takes the steps three at a time but I’m struggling; the pain from my earlier injuries is almost too much and I can feel my vision blurring. It’s too hard. He’s going to catch up.
Rawlins bounds back down and, in one swift motion, pulls me up and throws me over her back, fireman-style. I gasp aloud. ‘Quit your moaning,’ she says. ‘I’m trained and you’re slow.’
I suffer the indignity; compared to the alternative, it’s almost pleasant. Once we reach the roof, she drops me.
‘Ashley,’ I say. ‘We have to make sure she’s safe.’
‘She’s got a police guard. I checked already.’
I nod and back away, staring at the entrance to the stairs. Out here there’s nothing but some ancient heating units and a few discarded cigarette butts. The only way out of here is by jumping down ten storeys.
I knew it: I should never have left my house.
We hear a clank as the door on the floor below is opened. Rawlins and I glance at each other and I realise that she’s as scared as I am. She reaches for my hand and squeezes it. And then there’s the sound of sirens coming our way.
***
I stand in the rumour mill, surrounded by whispers. They rise up around me in swirls, some more urgent than others. The longer I wait, the more the indistinct ebb and flow becomes comforting.
I don’t have any desire to get closer and listen in to the specifics. Some things should be kept private. Knowing that the world is continuing outside of my own little life makes me feel better. Not everything is about me, even if it seems that way sometimes.
The door at the far end opens, drenching me in a golden sunbeam. I shield my eyes and squint. There’s no surprise as to who has followed me here.
‘Hi, Dante.’
‘Hello, Zoe.’ He walks in, closing the door behind him, and strides towards me, stopping less than a metre away. I drink him in. His jaw is covered in faint stubble and his eyes are hooded. He reaches out for me but, when I take a step back, he drops his hands.
‘Did you really think I’d allow the police to catch me?’ he asks.
I counter his faint sneer with one of my own. ‘Did you really think I’d just let you grab me like you did with Ashley?’ He doesn’t answer. I knit my fingers together. ‘Tell me one thing,’ I say, my voice dropping so that it’s barely audible over the whispers. ‘Why her? Why Ashley?’
A muscle jerks in his cheek. ‘She didn’t get hurt.’
‘That’s an interesting definition of not getting hurt. She was kept awake for three days, Dante. Hallucinations. Mania. Depression. All side-effects of lack of sleep.’
He doesn’t look away. ‘It was a calculated risk. She wouldn’t have come to any real harm.’
A tight ball of anger forms in my stomach. ‘Why? Was it all just a diversion to keep me busy?’
‘The Department was after you so I had to keep their men busy. I had to give them someone or they’d have been on to you like a shot.’
I shake my head. ‘Even when Kevin told them otherwise, they wouldn’t believe that Ashley was innocent. No wonder – they believed you.’
He runs a hand through his hair. ‘They had no reason not to. I kept you safe from them, Zoe, you should remember that. But the Department has more power than you can ever imagine. You needed to know what it’s capable of.’
‘You mean what you’re capable of. What power you have.’
‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.’
‘Fuck you!’ I burst out. ‘That was your plan? I can’t believe I was so stupid. I can’t believe you thought that would work.’
He sighs. ‘I’m not a monster. I’m not like those things from the Badlands.’
‘No,’ I say sadly. ‘They were under orders from the Sandman. You give the orders. Or you want to.’
‘It’s not as simple as that.’
I fold my arms across my chest. It’s not much of a barrier but it’s the best I can do. ‘Was it all lies?’
‘I’m not a bad person. I didn’t tell the others who you were,’ he repeats, as if getting Ashley tortured instead counts for something. ‘Don’t you remember that you told me I was a good person?’
‘I don’t care what you are!’ The high-pitched note in my voice belies my words but, right now, I don’t care. ‘I asked whether it was all lies. The girl you tried to rescue – Lacey. Was that true?’ His face tells me everything I need to know. My stomach roils queasily. How could I have been taken in so easily? ‘She was a lie. In fact, you were even lying to the people you supposedly work with. Was everything you said to me false?’
He steps towards me but this time I hold my ground. ‘No,’ he says finally. ‘I do care for you.’
I roll my eyes. ‘Really.’ My voice is flat.
A shaft of light from one of the upper windows hits his face. ‘You’re desirable.’ He laughs. ‘Don’t look so surprised. You know there’s a connection between us, there always has been. Even before I knew what you were, I wanted you. You desire me as much as I desire you. Together, we could be unstoppable.’
‘You pretended to Bron that you were on his side. You pretended to me. But you only helped bring down the Mayor because you wanted control of this zone. You skulked around the forest waiting for the best moment to destroy him. And when you met me, you sat back and watched me do it for you.’
He doesn’t disagree.
‘Did you even go to America?’
‘I wouldn’t have been able to track you in all those dreams if I had. If you’d thought about it, you’d have realised. The truth was staring you in the face all along.’
There’s a hollow ache where my heart used to be. I used to be good at noticing little details; I should have noticed that. Being with Dante clouded my thinking. It won’t happen again; I won’t let it.
I meet his eyes. ‘You only wanted me to go so I’d be out of the way when the Department arrived.’
‘Proving that I care about your safety. That I’m on your side.’
My mouth twists. ‘You want me on your side so you can use me. Everything you’ve done up to now was a ploy to get me to trust you. You wanted me to practise dreamweaving so I could become better at it, because unless I was skilled enough to change what was going on inside people’s heads, I was useless. You’ve been determined to stop me hurting myself not because you cared about me and my well-being, but because you needed me alive so you could use me. And then,’ I add, vibrating with rage, ‘when I pissed you off by showing up in Manchester, you helped me rescue Ashley so I believed that dreamweaving could be used for good.’
‘I’m not the Sandman. I’m not an evil mastermind, Zoe.’
‘Fuck you! Don’t you dare say my name! I don’t want to hear it on your lips ever again.’
His eyes glitter. ‘Zoe.’
I reach out and slap him once, hard round the face. He hisses but otherwise doesn’t react. ‘How do you think this ends, Zoe? You live out your days wandering through the Bubble and fixing people’s problems? How about you do something worthwhile and make the whole world a better place? I know what happened in the Badlands. You must have done something to stop the fungus. If we work together, it’ll be just like what you did there but on an even larger scale.’
‘Ha! Is that what the Department is doing? Helping people by keeping them in their place? Creating an atmosphere of terror? You want me to manipulate people to fulfil your every whim.’
‘And what’s wrong with that? Do you think letting Travellers wander in and out of the world’s dreams is really a good idea? Because without the Department, that’s what would happen. Not everyone is a damned saint. There are thirty thousand Travelle
rs in this zone. Imagine them knowing everything about the people they meet, their secret desires and innermost thoughts. That’s not responsible; making sure that the power we wield isn’t abused is. That’s what we do. Someone has to be in charge.’
I gaze at him in dismay. ‘And that someone is you.’
‘Fucking hell!’ he explodes. ‘It’s not as simple as you make out, Zoe. There are lots of zones. They all have power.’
‘You told me there’s no single Department leader,’ I say slowly. ‘But really it’s you, isn’t it? You’re in charge.’
A muscle jerks in his cheek, and the scar there pulsates. ‘Actually no. I’m the only tracker. I’m more powerful than they are put together. But it wasn’t enough.’
‘If you had me, then it would be enough. You could convince everyone that the leader should be you.’ I shake my head. ‘I trusted you. I gave myself to you.’
‘And I wasn’t lying with that. I want you. I want Zoe, not the dreamweaver.’
‘You want me in your bed. You want the dreamweaver in your pocket.’
He throws his up his hands. ‘Don’t you get it? I’ll make the Department better! And if you don’t want to weave, then don’t! I won’t make you.’
For the first time, I understand the Sandman’s motives in attacking first. Power is apparently more desirable than I’d realised. ‘No,’ I say softly. ‘You won’t make me at first but you’ll sneak things in, won’t you? You’ll tell me there’s a kid that needs my help. Maybe that kid has powerful parents. You’ll ask me to help you change someone’s mind. Nothing serious to start off with. You’ll get me doing little things, and you’ll think I won’t be able to say no. Those little things will grow and sooner or later I’ll do whatever you want.’
‘You don’t think very highly of yourself if you believe I can manipulate you so easily.’
I stare at him. Despite his words, I know what I’m saying is true. ‘You want to have your cake and eat it. Me and the dreamweaving, all in one.’
‘Would that really be so bad? I can keep you safe from the others. They won’t dare to touch you if you’re with me.’