7

by James Phelan

  “Despite what your first impressions may be,” Tobias said, “Duke is still the brightest mind I’ve ever known.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” Sam said. “My mom used to get like that and she’s about half his age.”

  “That reminds me,” Tobias said, pausing at a closed door at the end of the long hall. “We’ll speak with the Director about your parents, see if we can contact them.”

  Sam nodded.

  “If you still want to?”

  “I … yeah, I do.” Sam thought about the parents who raised him—a loving family that turned out not to be a family at all. “But there’s so much going on,” Sam added, “so, I mean, there’s no rush …”

  Tobias nodded, still paused in the hallway. He smiled then opened the door. “In the meantime, you ain’t seen nothing like this.”

  10

  EVA

  “You know,” Lora said, panting for breath. “There’s such a thing as over-training.”

  “I want to be ready to defend myself,” Eva said, getting into another jujitsu fighting stance. “Let’s go!”

  “You’re ready,” Lora said, settling herself. “Trust me, you’re a natural at this, and you’ll be able to defend yourself. What you’ve shown in the past twenty-four hours is better than most of the sixth-year students back at the Academy.”

  “In every generation there is a Chosen One,” Eva said in a mock voice-over tone. “She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the mean girls at school.”

  “You’ve seen too many teen movies, I think,” Lora laughed.

  “I’m using my generation’s heroes to inspire me, that’s all,” Eva said. “Come on, let’s spar again.”

  “You’re fine, training is over for the day, young slayer.”

  “Still, I could get better,” Eva said, dancing around on the spot, eyes on Lora. “I’m ready!”

  Lora laughed. “And I’m beat,” she said, sitting down on the sofa in their hotel room, which had been pushed against the walls like most of the other furniture to create the makeshift dojo.

  “Fine, leave me defenceless,” Eva said, taking a seat next to Lora—who pounced up and went to get her in a headlock. Eva was prepared and moved her body with her opponent’s to flip Lora on her back.

  “Argh, OK, OK!” Lora said, laughing. “You’re some kind of hyper-evolved ninja in the guise of a sixteen-year-old girl. I give up. You are now the master.”

  Eva laughed too and helped her teacher up to her feet. “I should totally have my own theme music.”

  “Meanwhile, back in the real world,” Lora said, “we have to get to the airport.”

  Eva jumped up to her feet and motioned that she was ready.

  They took two bottles of water from the minibar fridge and left their room, walking down the corridor to the elevators. Lora pressed the down button.

  “So,” Eva said, “think Mac’s guys are still back in Vancouver looking for us?”

  “With any luck,” Lora replied, “they’re still running around in circles.”

  “Who are they?”

  “My guess would be mercenaries—guys who used to be soldiers but now work for the highest bidder, no matter who they are and what they’re up to. They’re highly trained, so we don’t want to get caught by them.”

  “What would they do?”

  “They’d take us in.”

  “Ha, then Mac would just have to arrange a way for us to ‘escape’ again.”

  “Mmmm, maybe,” Lora mused.

  “You sound like you don’t believe Mac,” Eva said.

  “I don’t trust Mac,” Lora corrected. “Where is this elevator?” She pressed the down button again twice, then went to check her holstered dart pistol before recalling that it was no longer there.

  “So why did he let us go then? And what about my aunt?” Eva asked, confused, and worried now.

  “The more I think about the last few days, the more I believe that the whole thing was an elaborate show, for us and the Academy, to gain our trust. As useful as you might be to him later in the race, I think Mac’s hoping that releasing us will make it easier for him to get his hands on who he really wants—Sam. Your aunt probably truly believes he is on our side.”

  “But really, he’d tell lies about anything?” Eva asked.

  “Yes, I think so.”

  They turned to the elevator as it finally pinged its arrival. The doors opened and four of Mac’s men stood there, looking straight at them.

  11

  ALEX

  “OK, see you then,” Phoebe said, ending her call to the Director.

  They were in the emergency department at Vancouver General Hospital, waiting to have Alex’s arm checked out.

  Alex’s invention had worked. The lab room had filled with water, pushing them up into the ventilation tower. Once they reached the surface, they had run to the cover of the dense woodland surrounding the perimeter of the complex. Alex had wanted to go back inside the building to look for the other Agents, but Phoebe had insisted they follow Enterprise protocol and retreat to safety immediately while Rick checked up on the rest of the team.

  “We’re meeting Jack in Washington DC tonight,” she said to Alex.

  “What’s in Washington DC?” Alex asked.

  “He wouldn’t say over the phone, but I think it’s to do with Stella.”

  “Figures,” Alex said. “Hey, Mom, do you think, if it came to it, you could take out Stella?”

  Phoebe laughed. “Sure,” she said. “If it came to a fight, I’d take her down.”

  “Really?”

  “You don’t think I could?”

  They both laughed, and a nurse came over and explained that they would be seen in the next hour after a few more urgent cases waiting in the Emergency Room.

  “Any word from Sam?” Alex asked.

  Phoebe looked a little worried, but then said, “He’s with Tobias, headed for the next Gear.”

  “Oh, man …”

  “What?”

  Alex shrugged, remained silent.

  Eventually, Phoebe said, “Do you want anything to eat or drink?”

  “Nah, I’m OK.”

  They sat in the waiting room, watching the other patients and the busy medical staff.

  “You’ll get your chance,” Phoebe said after a few minutes.

  “Yeah, I know. Not much good now anyway, with this mortal injury.” He held up his arm.

  “You’ll have to be patient, Alex.”

  “But I haven’t had any dreams yet, you know, none about the Gears, or Solaris.”

  “That’s a good thing,” Phoebe said. “You’ll have that dream when you’re meant to. And just think, when you do—”

  “I’ll be ready, yeah, I know.” Alex thought about the possibilities of what might be ahead. Imagine being the first one to cross the finish line … I’ll be a hero. Cool …

  “You’re letting me go on an undercover mission?” Alex couldn’t believe his luck.

  I’m so getting my own dart gun this time!

  In a private viewing room in the Smithsonian, the Director, along with Phoebe, Alex and three Agents, sat and watched a briefing on a large wall screen. The Professor and Jedi were also linked via video conference from the Academy, as was Shiva from the Enterprise base in Amsterdam.

  They all were studying the schematics of the Washington Monument, which were displayed on the screen.

  “You can see that the foundation system goes a long way underground,” Shiva said over the line, controlling the image remotely. “There, it taps into the electromagnetic power field via a Tesla device.”

  “You’re sure about this?” Phoebe asked.

  “It’s true,” the Professor said from his office. “The Washington Monument was opened a few years before the Eiffel Tower and serves the same purpose.”

  “To record dream waves?” Alex asked.

  “That’s right,” the Director said. “The technology was nicknamed ‘Dream Sweeper’ and used Tesla
’s original machines that he invented while researching wireless energy—”

  “When he rediscovered the Dreamscape,” Alex interjected. “Sorry for butting in,” he apologized to the Director.

  “That’s fine—I’m glad you know your history. And yes, that’s true too. And,” the Director said, “this was all happening back when governments thought they could use the information they gathered from people’s dreams.”

  “With the help of some members from the earlier Dreamer Councils,” the Professor added. “Part of our history that I’m not proud of.”

  “This technology has provided a huge amount of scientific data for those of us in the Dreamer community to analyze,” the Director reasoned.

  “I know,” the Professor said. “But without the knowledge, or more importantly, consent, of those whose dreams were recorded.”

  “So what’s the current status of the Washington Monument?” Phoebe asked, getting them back to the mission at hand.

  “It was mothballed,” the Director said, studying the schematic. “No longer active, like that ex-Enterprise site in Vancouver you were caught up in.”

  Alex knew that something wasn’t being said. “That site and this are connected?” he asked.

  “Yes,” the Director said slowly. “You know that we were looking for a code book at the Vancouver complex?”

  “Yes,” Alex said. “Too bad there wasn’t a Gear there.”

  “That would have been a lucky bonus, very lucky. No, the team’s primary instructions were to retrieve a code book we believe was still held in the vault there. The book contains all the unique codes to unlock and activate sites such as the one at the Washington Monument. Unfortunately we were too late.”

  “And whoever has that,” the Professor said, “now—”

  “Stella has it!” Alex said. “I mean, she has to. Her Agents were down in those labs.”

  “We know Mac was there too,” the Director said.

  “And since we know Stella hasn’t left the Continental US yet, our best bet is that she’s headed straight for the closest tower—the Washington Monument.”

  “Either way,” the Professor said, “someone else now has control over Dream Sweeper sites across the world, giving them the ability to record every detail of every dream within the radius of the tower. They’ll have access to all that information—and they’ll have the locations of all those who dream.”

  “They’ll find us!” Alex said.

  “Not if we head off whoever has that code book,” the Director said. “Then we can stop them.”

  Alex stood up. “When do we leave?”

  12

  SAM

  “This was your bedroom growing up?” Sam asked, looking around the room lit by the dim light peeking through the closed curtains. It was crammed full of all kinds of toys, gadgets and inventions, mostly handmade metal trains, cars and remote airplanes. Wires, wheels, nuts and bolts, a million pieces of metal and wood and plastic littered every surface and most of the floor.

  “Until high school, yeah, this was it,” Tobias said, pulling back the curtains to open the windows, flooding the room with light and air. “Then I went to the Academy and boarded at around your age. But this was home for me—always was, always will be.”

  “It’s awesome!” Sam looked around. There was a steam-powered catapult, a model volcano Sam swore looked like it was still bubbling quietly in the corner and a miniature hot air balloon hanging from the ceiling. The shelves were stuffed with figurines and wind-up robots made from reclaimed body parts of action figures. Skyscraper-like towers of well-thumbed comic books stood on either side of the overflowing bookshelves, alongside a couple of buckets of battered baseballs.

  “Looks like Santa’s workshop in here,” Sam said in awe.

  “Didn’t you know?” Tobias said, “I am Santa Claus!”

  “Ha!” Sam said, rolling his eyes. He picked up a pair of homemade night-vision goggles mounted to an old bicycle helmet.

  “It’s dusty in here,” Tobias said, running a finger along a shelf, bent under the weight of all the books. “I really should visit Duke more often, help out around here.”

  “I bet he’s invented all the help he needs with all his gadgets,” Sam said. “What are we looking for again?”

  “This!” Tobias said, taking a helmet off an old table.

  “And that is …?”

  “My Home Video Magnificent Mind Machine,” Tobias said, looking nostalgically over the contraption. “Or HVMMM. Never was much good at naming my inventions.”

  “Huh?” Sam asked, looking at the bizarre helmet. Next to it on the table sat a large black box.

  “It’s a prototype dream recorder,” Tobias said. “It paved the way for what I designed with Jedi back at the Academy. Have a look while I figure out what to do about re-wiring the power adapter.”

  Sam took the helmet, surprised at how heavy it was in his hands. “I think this will break my neck.”

  “Yeah, probably best to wear it while lying down,” Tobias said, getting out a toolkit and going to work on the power pack.

  “Well, if the Academy’s current version—”

  “The Mark 7,” Tobias interrupted.

  “The Mark 7, right,” Sam said, sitting on a chair with the helmet on his lap. “So if the Academy’s one is a modern-day hybrid car, this thing would be a horse and cart from the Middle Ages? Is that about right?”

  “Fair analogy. Although unlike the cart, this is one of a kind. Aha!”

  Tobias found some new-looking batteries and inserted them—but they were long dead.

  “‘Use by 1989,’” Sam read from the back of the packet. “Hmm, spring clean much?”

  Tobias laughed. “I was never much good at throwing things out … 1989, that was a good year.”

  “If you say so …” Sam rolled his eyes, then joined in searching the room. It was stocked floor-to-ceiling like a museum of Tobias’ early life, but no more batteries were discovered.

  “Come on, we’ll see if Duke has got some. If not, we’ll go into town.”

  “Hey, what does this do?” Sam asked, reaching out to a tiny lever that said DO NOT TOUCH! It was connected to a toy train track that ran up the wall, along the ceiling and through a hole in the wall.

  “Hmm, you know, I can’t quite remember,” Tobias said, scratching his chin. “Try it.”

  Sam hesitated for just a second, then flicked the lever.

  Nothing happened.

  “Oh yes,” Tobias said, opening the window and turning on a little fan that was clipped onto the window frame. A wire ran from the fan to a tiny generator, which hummed to life and glowed red. “Try again.”

  Sam toggled the lever on and off a few times until a radio cranked into life somewhere underneath a pile of comic books. Then the lights in the ceiling flickered.

  CLONK!

  A yellow toy train engine came to life and emerged from behind a line of books, its headlamp shining brightly.

  “Ha!” Tobias said, his eyes sparkling.

  Sam watched the train travel through a tunnel, which in turn switched on a television. The train continued down a slope and exited the room through the hole in the wall.

  “Where does it go?” Sam asked, peering into the hole. It was too dark to see anything.

  “It used to go through the walls and floor, downstairs to the kitchen pantry and raid the chocolate stores,” Tobias said, “though I doubt that Duke has the kitchen stocked like he used to.”

  Sam nodded. The television showed grainy footage of the train as it travelled along the track, relayed from a camera built into the front engine.

  “Did you have parents?” Sam asked. “Real ones—I mean, you know …”

  “Did I ever know my real parents?” Tobias clarified for him.

  Sam nodded.

  “Yes, but they—”

  “Arghhh!” Duke’s shout rattled through the old wooden house from downstairs.

  Tobias sprinted from the room, h
urdling obstacles in the way, Sam close behind.

  They found Duke in the kitchen, hunched over the sink. To one side of the kitchen bench, Sam saw that the little train had derailed after leaving the pantry and crashed against the kettle.

  “Sorry, Duke!” Tobias shouted, going to his aid. “I should have warned you before sending that down here.”

  Sam saw that Duke’s face was damp with sweat and it looked as though he was having a heart attack.

  “I think he’s in trouble,” Tobias said, concerned. Then he spoke loudly to Duke, “I’ll help you to your chair!”

  “Wait!” Sam swallowed hard. In the window above the sink, Sam could see a small hole in the glass. Tracking the line of the hole to Duke, now completely unconscious, he saw a tiny dart in the old man’s chest. He pointed at it.

  Tobias stared at it wide-eyed.

  They had visitors.

  13

  EVA

  Time stood still for a split second as Eva weighed up the odds—four huge guys in front of her, Lora next to her.

  Attack is the best form of defence …

  Lora moved first.

  Eva was right behind her.

  They rushed toward the elevator, their sudden attack momentarily catching the men off guard. In the confined space, the four huge guys couldn’t use the advantage of their bulk. Lora and Eva used speed and surprise.

  Eva hit the closest guy as he was drawing his dart pistol, and before it clattered to the floor of the elevator she’d smashed him in the solar plexus, doubling him over.

  The next guy wasn’t so easy. Eva ducked under the swing of his arm—which then connected to the head of one of his comrades. Lora demolished one attacker and then flipped another around.

  Eva used the moment of confusion between the two hulking men to attack again—she took one guy’s arm and twisted it behind his head into a compliance hold. He wriggled and resisted.

  He’s too strong, he’s going to break out of my hold—

  Eva let go as she felt his weight drop.

  She looked down at the four men on the floor, stun darts embedded in their backs. Lora stood over their unconscious bodies, holding the dart pistol.