6

by James Phelan

  Is she an athlete?

  ‘The reinforcements will be here soon,’ she said.

  ‘Reinforcements?’

  ‘They set off an alarm before I could stop them.’

  ‘Who are the reinforcements?’ Sam repeated his question.

  ‘Sam,’ she said, looking at him. ‘You must trust me, OK? I’ll explain everything.’

  Sam looked into her blue eyes, already familiar, as they pleaded for his cooperation.

  This Dreamer really is on our side. I know it.

  ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I trust you.’

  07

  EVA

  ‘It’s like they’ve forgotten Sam already,’ Eva said to Lora, as she watched staff positioning banners announcing some kind of inter-school competition.

  How can they be doing sports comps at a time like this?

  ‘They haven’t forgotten him,’ Lora replied. ‘Don’t ever think that.’

  ‘It’s been a whole week since we got back from the US,’ Eva said, looking at Lora and seeing sadness in her eyes too. ‘A week since Sam was last seen.’

  ‘I know,’ Lora said. ‘But he’s … Sam’s OK, Eva, I’m sure of it—don’t for a second believe any of those rumours that he was trapped in Denver, because he’s not dead.’

  ‘You can’t know that for sure.’ Eva thought back to the news reports she’d seen, running daily across the TV news bulletins, on the net and in the papers, of the aftermath of the emergency evacuation in Denver. Nowhere did it mention secret bases or any survivors miraculously found underground.

  ‘I feel it,’ Lora said. ‘And you do too, in your dreams, don’t you?’

  Eva nodded.

  ‘Trust that. He got out and we’ll find him. It’ll be alright.’

  ‘Why can’t we go back there and look for him ourselves?’ Eva said.

  ‘It’s still being reported as a low-level radiation leak from a plane carrying dangerous cargo,’ Lora said, pointing to a tablet screen that showed a reporter at Denver International Airport. ‘Half the airport is still off-limits, and it’s not easy for us to gain access to Mac’s base. Believe me, the Professor has been trying. Besides, Jedi has analysed all the footage we can get hold of, and we know that several escape pods were launched. I think one of those would have been Sam.’

  ‘Yeah, I guess, it’s just we haven’t heard from him,’ Eva said. ‘Do you think he’s still with the others?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Lora admitted. ‘But we know Mac was found.’

  ‘He was?’ Eva said, animated.

  ‘I didn’t want to tell you before. He didn’t make it,’ Lora replied. ‘A heart attack, it seems, after Solaris set off explosives. But that doesn’t mean anything for Sam.’

  ‘What about Solaris?’ Eva asked. ‘If Sam didn’t leave with Mac, could he be with Solaris? I mean, I wouldn’t want him to be, but if that meant he was alive …’

  ‘There’s still no sign. Jedi is working to track the trajectories of the escape pods, but it’s proving hard. The footage we’ve acquired is poor quality, and it was night when they launched. Plus, it seems the pods went in very different directions—we can’t decipher a launch pattern at all. But Jedi is working to see if any UFO sightings were reported that day.’

  ‘And you really believe Sam was in one of them?’ Eva asked.

  ‘Yes. And there’ll be a good reason for not getting in touch.’

  ‘OK. You’re right.’ Eva felt a little reassured. She looked out the window at the school grounds of the Academy’s campus outside London, thinking how it looked like any other old, prestigious prep school.

  Only some of these students are also learning how to use their other gifts.

  Right now it was lunchtime and some kids were playing cricket in the sun while a soccer game was underway in another field. Countless others sat around reading and studying while they ate their lunch.

  ‘What more can we do?’ Eva said, focusing back in the room. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘Not much for now, I’m afraid,’ Lora said. ‘You know I’ll tell you as soon as there’s something to be done. But in the meantime, take comfort from the fact that many of the students you see down below have been dreaming that Sam’s out there and still in the race.’

  ‘They have?’ Eva was stunned.

  Lora nodded.

  ‘Right, then,’ said Eva, suddenly more determined, ‘So, we’ll find him. And I need to find a way to do that.’

  08

  SAM

  They walked as fast as Sam could manage, out of the room and into a dark hallway.

  ‘Where are we going?’ Sam asked as they quickened the pace and started to jog down the corridor towards a rickety wooden staircase.

  ‘Someplace safe,’ Arianna replied.

  ‘Wait! I can’t leave without the Gears!’ Sam said, pulling Arianna to a skidding stop.

  ‘Do you know where they are?’ she asked.

  ‘Well, no. They must have taken them from me when—’

  ‘Then you can leave without them. You must. We waste time looking for them now, we won’t make it out.’ Arianna shook her head defiantly.

  She’s right, I know she’s right. But to lose three Gears!

  ‘Come now!’ she said, dragging him onwards. By the time they reached the end of the corridor, Sam was running alongside Arianna. In the doorway of the last room they passed, Sam saw a pair of legs poking out—nearly tripping over them as he ran. It was the doctor who had assessed him earlier, lying still on the ground.

  ‘You killed them?’ Sam asked, momentarily pausing at the sight.

  ‘No. They are unconscious. For a long time, I hope.’

  ‘But that doctor …’

  ‘Believe me, he was no doctor,’ Arianna answered without breaking her stride. ‘At least, not one in the business of helping people. Come, keep moving, quickly.’

  ‘So who was he?’ Sam asked, joining her again.

  ‘Someone trained to get you to talk.’

  Sam struggled to comprehend it all, the drugs still clouding his mind and making it hard to work out what was real and what he had dreamed. They went down the stairs and entered a little foyer, Sam still needing to focus on each step. Behind a desk by the door were two security guards, unconscious, like the doctor.

  ‘What is this place?’ Sam asked.

  Certainly no hospital … and certainly not the Academy.

  ‘It is what you would call “a front”.’ Arianna stopped at the foyer doors, looking out the glass window, waiting for a break in the pedestrians and traffic outside to make an unseen getaway.

  ‘A front?’

  ‘A fake. You know, pretend? Your room was designed to look like a hospital room. But it is nothing of the kind.’

  Sam looked about—the foyer was convincing, set up as a medical centre—it looked like a typical waiting room. But it was deserted. The more detail he took in, the more Sam felt as though he’d left his brain behind someplace. It felt as though this was making sense, but seemed otherworldly, like he was watching things from afar rather than participating in them.

  Like I’m still dreaming.

  ‘They said—’ Sam began.

  ‘You were at the Academy.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Well, you’re not, Sam. Look, out there. That’s Moscow. And those guys?’ Arianna pointed back at the unconscious guards. ‘All of this is a facility set up and run by the Hypnos.’

  ‘And who are the Hypnos?’

  ‘They’re criminals who corrupt all that is good about Dreamers. They use the dreams they steal for power and control. But recently they’ve been working for someone else.’

  ‘Stella?’ Sam asked, taking a guess.

  ‘I don’t know, we haven’t been able to find out,’ Arianna said. ‘This place is what they call a “reading centre”,’ she added. She checked the monitors on the desk, watching the footage from outside on the street to make sure that the coast was clear. Satisfied, she unhooked the surveillance h
ard drive and put it in her pack. ‘We try not to leave evidence of ourselves behind, da?’

  This girl knows what she’s doing.

  ‘So, they bring the new ones to sites like this,’ she continued.

  ‘New ones?’

  ‘Those who are newly identified. Dreamers, yes? They assess Dreamers, process them, and then send them off to the next step in their chain, to a more secure facility in Siberia. It’s happened to so many in this country. You must know there are those who want to use dreams for their own purposes.’

  Mac, Hans, Stella … even the Enterprise. Yeah, I know lots of people like that.

  ‘Siberia …’ he said, remembering his dream of the cabin in the snow, the forest, the wolves.

  ‘That’s a place you never want to see,’ Arianna added.

  ‘I bet,’ Sam said, understanding her tone. ‘But who are you, Arianna, really? I mean, all the other Dreamers I’ve met—to some extent I’ve had to convince each of them of their abilities, but you already know what you are, right?’

  ‘I did. I do,’ Arianna sighed. ‘I’ve known for a long time that I am a Dreamer,’ Arianna said, putting her backpack on and looking out the front doors again. ‘I have spent my life rescuing Dreamers like you from the Hypnos. There’s a battle raging. I hope you are ready for your part in it.’

  ‘I am. I mean, as soon as I feel back to normal. We have a mission too, you know.’

  ‘Oh, I know,’ Arianna said, pulling the door open and stepping outside, Sam right behind her. ‘But for now, welcome to Moscow, Sam.’

  As they walked across the road, Sam was immediately struck by how similar it felt to being in Paris—the cobbled street and graceful old buildings around them seemed so out of step with where they had just been. They turned a corner and were confronted with half a dozen rows of traffic, surging forwards at the green lights swinging overhead. Sam squinted in the harsh daylight to follow Arianna as she deftly weaved between the mass of pedestrians around them.

  ‘You’re with the Academy?’ Sam asked as he caught up to her, feeling more and more alive with every stride.

  ‘No, not the Academy,’ Arianna said, moving even faster now. ‘I am one of the Nyx. We’ve been locked in a battle over the Dreamscape for many generations. And if we don’t hurry, we will lose everything.’

  09

  A cold wind made Sam wish for a warm coat as they navigated the busy streets.

  ‘So this is a battle between the Nyx and the Hypnos?’ he asked.

  ‘That is correct,’ Arianna said. ‘And I am with the Nyx.’ She held up her left arm as they ran down a narrow side street, flashing a small star tattooed on the underside of her wrist. The Hypnos’ ‘reading centre’ was already several blocks behind them. ‘We all have this as a symbol of membership. We are a group of Dreamers and friends who fight for freedom. The Hypnos want to control us—all of us. They believe that if they can get to our dreams, steal our gift, then they can be in charge.’

  ‘Of Russia?’ Sam said, then did a double take as they passed a fast food outlet that looked exactly as it would back home but the sign was in another, strange-looking language.

  ‘Russia, and then the world. Keep going, faster. We have to get off the streets.’

  And here was me thinking that I’d need to find her … explain everything to her. Not this time.

  Arianna took him to the end of the short laneway and paused, looking right and left. ‘He’s not here.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Our getaway,’ she said, looking frantically about. ‘He was meant to be here, in a car.’

  Sam looked around—there were plenty of cars and trucks, all lumbering along in the cool morning air, though none were parked or waiting nearby.

  A whistle rang out from across the street. Arianna turned and Sam followed her gaze. A beat-up old cab was pulling up to the curb, the driver hanging out the window and waving them over.

  ‘That’s him,’ she said, and took Sam by the arm and together they crossed the main road, dodging between honking horns. They climbed into the back seat of the taxi as the driver hit the gas and took off in a squeal of rubber against road.

  ‘Sam, this is our friend, Boris,’ Arianna said. ‘Boris, this is our Dreamer, Sam.’

  Boris was huge—a giant of a man. Even squashed into the front seat, Sam could tell he was maybe two metres tall and a metre wide in the shoulders. His meaty face broke into a huge grin and he raised his fist to Sam in a gruff greeting.

  ‘Better buckle up,’ Boris said, Sam simultaneously hearing both the spoken Russian and the English translation through his earpiece.

  Wow, that’s going to take some getting used to.

  Sam quickly followed his instructions.

  He watched as Boris’ eyes shifted nervously from the road ahead to the rear-view mirror and out his side windows. Arianna asked him something in Russian, too quick or too quiet for Sam’s earpiece to pick up. Boris nodded and they both began looking all around, scanning the streets.

  ‘What is it?’ Sam asked. ‘Trouble?’

  ‘Cops,’ Arianna said. ‘They’re close by.’

  ‘Police is bad?’ Sam said. ‘Can’t they help us?’

  ‘Not in Russia—it’s not that simple,’ Arianna said.

  Their cab practically flew down the street, Boris’ heavy foot planted hard, the horns of other cars a loud soundtrack to their high-speed getaway.

  ‘Why?’ Sam asked.

  ‘Many of the police in this city are … connected to the Hypnos,’ Arianna replied in Russian so Boris could follow the conversation. ‘Not all of them, of course. There are some very good cops in town, like Boris here.’

  Sam caught Boris smiling in the front seat.

  ‘It has become hard to tell who you can trust anymore, as the Hypnos are everywhere,’ Arianna went on, the two of them sliding around in the back seat as Boris took a hand-brake turn through a wide intersection. ‘Most of those in power, most of those who are wealthy, have gotten to their positions by many, many years of stealing and controlling dreams. It has been a battle raging for too long, but I feel, I know, that it will be coming to a close, very soon. One way or another.’

  She stared at Sam meaningfully, a fierce intensity in her eyes.

  10

  ALEX

  ‘OK,’ Alex said, dusting off workbenches that seemed to be covered more with dust and cobwebs than anything of use to them, ‘I admit that I may have skimmed over my lack of knowledge of Tesla before. Here’s what I do know—old dude, dead now, inventor. Was into electricity, lived and worked here in New York for a bit. That’s about it. I mean, apart from now knowing he was a Dreamer and into the Dreamscape stuff.’

  ‘Ha!’ Shiva replied with a chuckle, untangling electrical cables. ‘Never would have guessed your limited smarts on such an important subject.’

  ‘What was that?!’ Alex cried out and jumped up on a desk.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I saw a snake!’

  ‘That was a bit of electrical cable,’ Shiva said, laughing. ‘Really, I thought you were a tough guy, out to save the world and all that. What happened with that?’

  ‘I am,’ Alex replied, climbing back down to the floor with a nervous glance. ‘I’m just not mad on snakes is all.’

  ‘You Americans,’ Shiva replied, still chuckling. ‘The city where I am from, in Bangalore, has more than snakes to worry about. This city too, I’m sure.’

  ‘Yeah, it’s just …’ Alex looked about uneasy. ‘I think it’s their eyes and tongues that freak me out.’

  ‘Maybe you just had a bad dream about them once.’

  ‘Ha, yeah, maybe.’

  ‘Let’s take five,’ Shiva said, tossing Alex a drink from his pack. The pair sat on ancient office chairs that squeaked and creaked under their weight.

  ‘Weren’t you ever scared of anything?’ Alex asked.

  ‘Getting caught,’ Shiva replied.

  ‘By who?’

  ‘Whoever I was hacking.
’ He smiled.

  ‘Nice. Do much hacking these days?’

  ‘A little bit, for the Enterprise. Don’t want to get rusty.’

  ‘Is that how you started out for them?’ Alex asked.

  ‘Yep,’ Shiva said. ‘I was hacking bank accounts that were being used by Dreamers who make their living on the wrong side of the law. While I was fooling around in a bank’s database, I got caught.’

  ‘By the cops?’

  ‘Nope. Matrix.’

  ‘Oh,’ Alex said. ‘Was he always an annoying butthead?’

  ‘Pretty much, yep,’ Shiva said.

  ‘How’d he catch you?’

  ‘Well, he caught wind of what I was doing and then watched me, testing me. He wanted to see if I could get around in networks undetected. Turns out I can’t—least not from him. He’s very, very good.’ Shiva broke out a packet of mixed nuts.

  ‘Where do you think he is now?’ Alex asked through a mouthful.

  ‘With Stella someplace, doing her online dirty work.’

  ‘What would you do if you met him again?’

  Shiva smiled. ‘What, like revenge?’

  ‘I guess.’

  ‘I don’t want to punch him in the face or anything like that. I’m too much of a pacifist.’ Shiva was silent for a while. Alex could practically hear him running the revenge possibilities through his mind. ‘I’d love to bump into him on the net again. Take him down that way, once and for all. That’s how you hurt the best hackers, especially someone like Matrix.’

  ‘By beating them at their own game?’

  ‘You know it.’ Shiva tossed an almond up into the air and caught it in his mouth.

  ‘Wish I was good at something like that.’

  ‘Like catching nuts?’

  ‘No, like you, with your hacking.’

  ‘You’re pretty good with tech and computers.’

  ‘I can fix stuff. Do basic coding. Get into networks that have their backdoors left open. But that’s it.’ Alex sighed.

  ‘It’s more than most.’