by James Phelan
One final Guardian was still in hot pursuit.
They burst through the doors to the kitchen. Hot steam and noise surrounded them—a sea of cooks prepping the day’s food service.
Sam and Arianna ran side-by-side through the aisles between kitchen benches, behind a battalion of pastry chefs, under a massive tray of dumplings, around a—
Sam lost his footing, slipping on a wet patch of the tiled floor, and landed heavily on his back. He slid forwards.
Arianna turned, a huge wooden rolling pin in her hands, and Sam watched as if in slow motion as it swiped only millimetres clear over his head.
WHOOMP!
The sound it made as it connected with the Guardian’s stomach was like all the air being beaten out of a mattress.
‘Nice shot!’ Sam said. Arianna helped him to his feet and they ran on without looking back. ‘What’s next?’
‘Next?’ she asked.
‘Where are we going now?’
‘To plan B,’ Arianna said.
‘What’s plan B?’ Sam asked as they entered a large hall and resumed a more normal pace to save being noticed by the palace’s real security guards.
‘We get out of town the old fashioned way.’
The old-fashioned way turned out to be train. A big train, an old train. In a very beautiful station, like you’d see in a classic movie.
‘I like trains,’ Sam said to Arianna, who was next to him, tickets in her hand, as they headed for a carriage near the end of the platform. ‘You know where they’re going.’
‘Yes, to Siberia,’ she replied.
‘No, I mean I like them because you know where they’re going.’
‘Yes,’ she said, looking at him weirdly.
‘No, I mean, you know, because of the tracks …’
‘Yes?’
‘Ah, forget it.’
Arianna laughed. Sam liked how her face lit up when she laughed.
She’s not had much to laugh about for a while.
‘What’s so funny?’ he replied.
‘I know what you mean, Sam,’ Arianna replied. ‘You like to travel on trains because they are predictable, they have a schedule and tracks, and you can rely on where they will be taking you.’
‘Yeah, maybe I could have said it that way,’ Sam said, stepping aside to allow her to enter the carriage, the last of the first-class sleepers. ‘And to think, English is your second language.’
‘My third actually, after Russian and German,’ Arianna said. ‘That reminds me, if we get caught, or questioned by anybody, don’t speak. I’ll do all the talking.’
‘Just like last time,’ Sam said. ‘Got it.’
‘Relax,’ Arianna said, opening the door to their cabin, ‘you look suspicious when you look that nervous.’
‘But I am nervous,’ Sam replied out of the corner of his mouth. A group of railway workers entered the carriage and the two of them went into their cabin and closed the door.
‘You’ll attract attention looking like that,’ she persisted.
‘I can’t help it,’ Sam said. ‘I’m waiting for my positive train vibe to kick in.’
A couple of police officers walked past on the platform outside. Serious-looking guys on patrol, submachine guns slung over their shoulders. Arianna pulled down the blind.
Sam tested out the beds—one was in the sofa, the other pulled down from behind the wall panel. Other than that, there was a little table, and a tiny bathroom with a toilet and washbasin.
‘How long is this trip?’ he asked.
‘With all the stops, about twenty hours,’ she said, reading from a brochure.
‘That long?’
‘It’s good—it will give Boris time to prepare for our arrival.’
‘Prepare?’
‘The Nyx. This is it for us—we’re going to strike the Hypnos where it hurts, their science facility.’ Arianna peered out through a gap between the window and the blind.
‘The coast clear?’
‘The coast is a long way away.’
‘I mean … man, I really gotta start talking properly.’
‘Gotta?’
‘Don’t worry about it. So, what you got in that bag?’
‘A phone, but it’s not completely secure,’ Arianna said, rummaging through her bag and pulling out its contents. ‘Plus, let us see … bottle of water, wallet, passport, taser—’
‘You are prepared,’ Sam said. ‘So when can I make a call?’
‘Our first major stop,’ she said, checking the train timetable for information. ‘In six hours, we stop for fifteen minutes to take on fuel and uncouple the last few carriages. We can take a small risk to use a public phone so you can contact your friends.’
Sam nodded.
‘You sure you want to do this?’ Sam said.
‘This? You mean getting my ability to dream back?’
‘Yes.’
‘Da, of course. Since I was ten, when they took it from me, I have had, how would you say this, day-terrors?’
‘Like nightmares in waking life?’
‘Yes. Images, moments, times when I am scared. I see things that are not there but are in my mind.’
‘Well, just don’t taser me when I’m looking the other way,’ Sam said, and it lightened the mood. ‘What do you know about this place we’re going to?’
‘If you thought the Kremlin was imposing as a fortress, you will be surprised.’
‘Is this place so massively fortified because they want to keep people like us out?’ Sam asked.
‘And because it’s a prison. A long time ago it was a labour camp where they sent political enemies. Now it is deserted but for a small facility for the Dreamers.’
‘Hmm, another place to break into …’
‘Sam,’ Arianna said, looking at him with a steady gaze and holding his shoulders. ‘You want this, correct? You need this Gear.’
He nodded. ‘I need to get all the Gears back and it sounds like that’s where Hans is going. So …’
‘You survived flying around the world in a supersonic escape pod,’ Arianna said. ‘This will be a, how would you say, a walk through the park?’
‘A walk in the park,’ Sam said.
‘OK,’ Arianna smiled warmly, a big genuine grin that spread through her face to her eyes. ‘A walk in the park. So, we can do this?’
‘Break into a prison? Sure, why not?’ Sam smiled.
‘Then let us do this.’
‘Let’s do this,’ Sam corrected.
‘Huh?’
‘Nothing,’ Sam said. ‘It’ll be a walk in the park …’
23
EVA
‘So,’ Xavier said, after Cody had told them all his story and fielded dozens of questions, ‘you tricked Sam into going down into the Grand Canyon with you, even though you’d already found the Gear and given it to your parents. Then you let him be taken to this mysterious underground government bunker, and left him as you ran away via an escape pod.’
‘Yes,’ Cody replied. He looked directly at Xavier, forcing himself to hold his gaze, even as his cheeks reddened.
At least he’s not trying to hide the facts.
‘And you left our friend behind,’ Gabriella added.
‘I couldn’t—’ Cody began.
‘You’re a coward,’ Xavier said, walking off.
Eva looked at the faces of her friends all gathered around. They looked a little stunned, as though the information they’d just learned neither settled anything nor gave them much reason for hope.
‘We didn’t know that Mac was crazy and had gone out on his own, I promise you all that,’ Cody said. ‘We thought we were doing the best thing, the right thing.’
‘We get it,’ Eva said after a moment’s silence amongst the group. ‘We have to put it behind us. We’re never going to make it if we don’t pull together.’
The others nodded, Maria reaching out to tap Cody’s arm.
Cody nodded and appeared relieved and thankful. ‘What abou
t Xavier?’ he asked.
‘He’s a little hot in the head,’ Gabriella said, and the others laughed. ‘What?’
‘Hot-headed,’ Eva said. ‘Yes, he is. Plus, he’s known Sam the longest, they knew each other back at school.’
‘Oh,’ Cody said. ‘Fair enough.’
‘What was he like?’ Rapha asked Cody. ‘This Solaris guy? Nobody’s really seen him up close, or for very long.’
‘He’s tall,’ Cody said. ‘Dressed all in black. Full face mask. And his voice … terrifying. All scrambled and metallic, amplified. Sounded like it was a respirator—like he needs it to breathe. Just like in our nightmares, really. But scarier.’
Eva could tell that it was haunting Cody.
Good, let him be a bit haunted … maybe that’ll help him remember what we’re fighting against.
‘I’ve been thinking about it—him—a lot this past week. I see him, I hear him, in every dream I’ve had since. They all end the same—he shoots me with fire.’
The group was silent.
‘Come on, guys,’ Eva said, getting to her feet. ‘Time to call it a day.’
They all made their separate ways to their dorms.
‘Follow me,’ Eva said to Cody, showing him the way.
‘You said you’ve been there before?’ he asked.
‘Where?’ Eva said as they headed up the stairs.
‘The Grand Canyon,’ he replied.
‘My dad took me on a tour when I was a little girl,’ she said. ‘Had you ever been to that Bureau 13 site in Denver before?’
They stopped outside a door that Eva opened, revealing an empty room for Cody.
‘No, I hadn’t,’ Cody said. ‘But my parents had spoken about it. They explained that if there was ever a crisis that we would head there, that there was a facility for a special group of the government elite, and that we’d be able to join them and be taken to safety.’
‘How?’
‘There are deep bunkers there, under the mountains. And subway lines linking them all. A full underground city, able to house half a million people. Top secret, of course, and just for senior government and their families, essential people and all that. It was made to withstand an all-out nuclear war.’
Eva looked at him. ‘Do you think Sam got out?’
Cody didn’t hesitate. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I have no doubt. I was shouting to him, telling him I’d wait, but he told me to go, that he was right behind me. And—and there was something about Solaris, almost like he cared about what happened to Sam. He would have got out with him, or maybe they made their escape separately. But they definitely got out.’
Eva felt her eyes water at the thought of Sam being stuck somewhere with Solaris.
Please don’t let that be the case.
‘And these pods, do you know where they went?’
‘No. Apparently they can travel to anywhere in the world.’
‘Where did you land?’
‘San Antonio.’
‘Why there?’
‘That’s where we landed because by the time my dad figured out how to override the controls and force a touch-down, we were flying over the place.’
‘So Sam could be anywhere,’ Eva said. ‘Anywhere in the world.’
‘Yep. I’m so sorry, I had no idea what was going on. I feel so stupid now.’
Eva walked away down the hall, then turned. ‘You’ll get your chance to make up for it, you know,’ she said. ‘One day, you’ll have a chance to prove to all of us that you can be trusted, that you are worthy of being one of the last 13.’
Cody nodded.
‘Until then,’ Eva said as she walked away, ‘and until Sam is found safe, it’s probably best to keep a low profile around here.’
‘I will,’ Cody said. ‘And Eva?’
She turned back to face him once more.
‘Thanks,’ he said.
Eva nodded and left, a spring in her step as she rushed to see Jedi about locating Sam’s escape pod.
24
SAM
Sam looked out the window of their train carriage. The train was huge—two massive diesel locomotives up front and another at the end of the ten passenger cars and a dozen or so freight cars. ‘This is Siberia?’
‘Yes. It is a big place, vast, mostly empty of people, though that is changing,’ Arianna said. ‘To understand the size, think of it like this—Siberia is bigger than the whole of America. Canada too. You’re from there, correct?’
‘I was raised my whole life in Canada, apart from a couple years in the States.’
‘Why’d you go there?’
‘My parents’ work.’
‘Why’d you move back to Canada?’
Sam looked absently out the window, watching the endless trees and open plains and mountains, the occasional farmhouse and road flitting past. He didn’t register much of it, instead thinking of his friend, Bill, and the fire that had taken his life …
‘It’s complicated,’ Sam said. ‘There was an accident. My parents thought we should move back to where I had old friends. And my psychologist was there.’
‘Accident?’ she asked.
Sam nodded. There was silence between them for a while, then he asked, ‘So where are we getting off the train?’
‘Krasnoyarsk, hundreds of kilometres from here. Then we’ll borrow a friend’s car and drive from there.’
‘To where I dreamed about the cabin?’
‘Yes.’
‘With the wolves.’
‘Right …’
They watched the scene framed by the window in silence.
‘You’ve been away from your home for a while?’ Sam said.
‘My home is a suitcase. I live a gypsy life, on the road, where my work takes me.’
‘Work? You’re, what, sixteen?’
‘Yes. I study, by computer, but I compete in gymnastics. The training is constant.’
‘Did you go to school for that?’
‘Until I was thirteen, and since then it has been remote schooling, on the road with my parents and online with my school teachers. Then I can also go to competitions around the world.’
‘Do you like it?’ Sam asked.
‘Gymnastics?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Yes. It was what I used to dream of doing,’ Arianna said. ‘My last dream that I can remember was competing in the Olympics some day. I still hold that dream.’
‘That’s pretty amazing. How about regular school, do you miss that?’
‘Yes, and no,’ Arianna said, a slight smile on her face. ‘Mostly I miss old school friends, but I still see them sometimes, and I’ve made plenty of new ones through competitions and practice. What about you—do you miss your school?’
Sam nodded. ‘In a way, though I’ve not really had time to miss it too much.’
‘Time …’ Arianna said. ‘Not enough time … that’s what so many people say these days, as an excuse, da?’
‘Yeah,’ Sam said, ‘I guess. Though with this race to get the Gears, to beat everyone else to the Dream Gate, we really are in a race against time.’
Arianna nodded and they sat for a while, absently watching the view rolling by outside the window as the train headed east across the vast landscape.
‘What’s your hometown like?’ Arianna asked, taking a sip from her water bottle and passing it to Sam.
‘Vancouver?’ Sam said, taking a drink while he thought about it. ‘It’s quiet, nice—friendly. It’s the place I’ve spent the most time in, so it’s familiar and comfortable.’
‘All this time trying to save the world—you are travelling like me. So I ask, you miss it?’
‘Yeah, totally,’ Sam said. ‘I miss a few friends, my dog, my school, my hockey mates, my jujitsu classes. And the city, I miss that too. The mornings can be so perfect you could lose a whole day to them.’
‘Lose a day to the morning?’ Arianna quizzed.
‘Figure of speech.’
‘Right. And your family? You
miss them?’
‘Yeah, I miss them too,’ Sam said. ‘I guess I just miss life as a regular teenager, laughing with friends, an easier time … before all this craziness.’
‘Before you had the, what is it called, the fate? Yes, the fate of the entire world in your hands.’
‘Yep, that’s about the size of it,’ Sam said, and with not much else to say in response to that, they laughed.
25
EVA
Eva lay in the dark, happy to be awake and not to be dreaming. The light of the moon shone brightly through the open curtains.
At least I’m not having a nightmare.
Not another nightmare about Sam, as she’d had so many times since he’d been missing.
‘Can you sleep?’ Gabriella asked.
‘No, not really,’ Eva replied.
‘He’ll be alright,’ Gabriella said. ‘I know it, now that we have heard from Cody. Before that, I was worried.’
‘You never seemed worried,’ Eva scoffed.
‘Well, I was,’ Gabriella said. ‘You have to feel a bit better about it now, right?’
‘Maybe.’
‘Not maybe. Solaris would not harm him—’
‘Yes, he would.’
‘Well, he wouldn’t kill him.’
Eva was silent for a while.
‘You’re right,’ Eva said. ‘He can’t kill him. He needs him just as we do.’
They were silent then, and Eva listened as her roommate started to quietly snore, and eventually she too slept.
A restless sleep.
The next morning, Eva entered the Professor’s study. Lora and Jedi were waiting there with him.
‘Take a seat,’ the Professor said.
Eva sat next to Lora. ‘Before we begin, can I ask something?’
‘Of course,’ the Professor said, Lora nodding in agreement. ‘What is it, Eva?’
‘It’s about Cody, and his parents … I know they were tricked by Mac and it seems like they’re with us now. But—but how …’
‘How can we be sure they’re really with us?’ Lora added. ‘Is that what you’re asking?’
‘Well, yes. Ever since this race started, everyone has been switching sides faster than I can keep up with. We’ve been betrayed by the Egyptian and German Guardians, the Enterprise split in two when Stella went rogue …’