by James Phelan
“I love danger!”
What is this guy on?
“Oh, man!” Issey went on. “This is the coolest night of my life.”
The crowd went nuts as the lights dimmed.
“See you after the tournament!” Issey waved to the crowd and strutted to his place.
Sam walked back to his front row seat next to Tobias.
“How’d he take it?” Tobias asked.
“Well, OK, but I’m not sure he’s really grasping the situation. It’s like he’s so successful that he thinks he’s invincible,” Sam replied. “Man, if I ever get a big head like that … I don’t know, but do something, don’t let me get away with it.”
“Sure will,” Tobias said cheerily.
They were silent for a moment.
“Do you think he’ll show?” Sam said, scanning the crowd.
“Solaris?”
“Yeah,” Sam replied.
“Don’t know. Jedi tried to track the escape pods out from Denver, but with no luck. We know he’s out there, somewhere. We just have to be extra careful.”
“Like sneaking out on Lora?” Sam asked. “It didn’t work though. Stella is still in town …”
Tobias took a heavy breath. “I just think that it’s best if we work in the dark as much as possible. The less people who know your movements, the better.”
13
EVA
In the morning, Eva went looking for Sam and Lora and could not find either of them. She headed for the Professor’s office, but as she walked up to the door, she stopped.
Eva could hear yelling. She put her ear to the door and quickly realized from the conversation happening inside that Sam had left in the night with Tobias.
“Why would you keep me in the dark on this?” Lora demanded.
“Lora, I am sorry,” the Professor said, “but we had to keep this quiet.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I do trust you, you know that.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me? Why the secrecy?”
“Because there was no time.”
“There was time to at least keep me in the loop—I oversee all the operations here.”
“Ah …” the Professor sighed. “Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Well, I’m not happy about this. I think it’s wrong, and dangerous. We know Stella has been sighted in Japan.”
Eva heard footsteps nearing and shuffled from the door to behind the sofa in the waiting room in case Lora stormed out. From the open window behind her, she could still hear the conversation from the Professor’s open office window farther along the wall.
“I know, Lora, I know. But it was all in good faith,” the Professor said. “I have fears, grave fears, that someone can see into our dreams—all our dreams.”
There was silence, and Eva leaned out the window a little to hear.
“I worried that if you or Sam slept last night,” the Professor said, “or me, for that matter, that our travel plans might have been seen.”
There was more silence.
Lora’s weighing up what the Professor is saying. What are they talking about?
“And if something happens to Sam?” Lora said finally.
“There’s always that risk, you know that,” the Professor replied. “But he’s with Tobias, and there are Guardians there too. They’ll be careful.”
Sam’s gone?
“Stella’s force could be ten times the number of Guardians,” Lora countered. “And Hans and Solaris are still out there somewhere.”
“Lora, please. I need you here, we all do,” the Professor said. “You must get the Dreamer Doors team ready. They can help us find the missing Gears. Isn’t that what you told me?”
“Yes—yes I know, you’re right,” Lora said. “But Sam is more important than anything else right now.”
“I know, but this is vital too.”
“I understand we must find the Gears that have fallen into other hands, but …” There was a pause, then Lora went on, “But there’s something else to it, isn’t there? Something else that you’ve yet to tell me.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Lora, hopefully running the competition will help counter some of the nightmares the world is experiencing at the moment, and in turn that could save countless lives,” the Professor said. “And it will buy us time.”
There was silence then and when Lora next spoke her voice was calm and reconciled.
“OK,” she said, “I’ll work on the selection.”
Eva ducked down as Lora left the Professor’s office and Eva waited, hidden in silence, hearing her walk away.
“Eva, you can come in now,” the Professor called out.
Eva abruptly stood up and looked around to find the hidden camera.
Jedi!
She went into the Professor’s office, looking sheepish. She found him standing there, smiling.
“You’re worried about Sam,” he said. “But he’ll be fine.”
“How are you so sure?” Eva asked.
“Because you dreamed it, last night,” the Professor said. “And just like you dreamed of that helicopter ride that you and Sam and Alex took a few weeks back, that dream will come true too.”
“You’re right. I … I dreamed of Sam, and we were somewhere hot, like a desert. But then you know that, because you’ve seen it, haven’t you?”
“Yes,” the Professor said, bringing her recorded dream up on a screen in the room. “And I had Jedi map the stars that are visible in the sky.”
“Oh?”
“From their positioning, we can work out that this event happens a couple of weeks from now.”
“So Sam will be OK …”
“For now, that appears to be the case.”
“But the future can change,” Eva said. “You’ve said so, I’ve read about it. Tobias leaving with Sam instead of Lora, as in Sam’s dream—that’s already changing the future.”
“Yes, the more we change things like that, the more it changes what’s going to happen,” the Professor agreed.
“That’s what scares me,” Eva said.
14
SAM
“We need to get out of here,” Sam said, looking around at the lights of the arena.
“Tonight is the semi-final,” Tobias said. “We’ve changed your dream, which had us here tomorrow at the final.”
“So we’re a day ahead,” Sam said, still scanning the scene. They were seated near the floor and all around the crowds had on T-shirts emblazoned with either Issey’s red team or the Hong Kong green team. Red and green glowsticks punctuated the air around them. The house lights went down, making it hard to really see the crowd but for the colours they wore. Powerful spotlights and strobes roamed across the arena, while laser lighting made fast-moving patterns all around the ceiling. “Still, I don’t know … this feels spooky.”
“We’ll talk to Issey again once he’s done his thing,” Tobias said, “then we’ll get out of Tokyo fast and see where we need to go for his Gear.”
“But we’ll have to convince him to miss the final tournament tomorrow,” Sam said, shifting in his seat as his dart pistol dug into the small of his back where he’d tucked it into his Stealth Suit. “And what if they change things up too? Stella or whoever, or whatever, gets in here, not tomorrow, but tonight?”
“All the entry points are being watched by Guardians, so we’ll have warning.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Sam said, looking around uneasily.
What were those beasts from my dream? They can’t be real, right?
Sam saw on the giant screen that Issey was entering the fifth and deciding round to win the night’s tournament and advance to the final. The home crowd was skewed in his favour, but the Hong Kong contingent was making up for their smaller number with a rapturous cheer squad.
“How much longer do you think?” Sam asked.
“The way Issey demolished the guy in that last heat,” Tobias said, leaning
forward and watching a huge screen showing the tactics being used by both players in the monster-fighting game, “I think it’ll be over soo—”
All of a sudden the power went out. All the lighting, gone. The computers and jumbo screens. Everything was in complete darkness.
Sam tensed. All around them, the raised glowsticks went still.
“Tobias—my dream.”
“I know, stay close.”
They both drew their dart pistols.
“Those beasts from my dream—”
“They were just a manifestation,” Tobias said, his voice calm. “They symbolize your enemy. It’s what your dreaming mind does when searching for answers and projecting fears. Whoever is here, rest assured they’re human.”
Then the screaming started.
The emergency generators kicked in, casting a dim glow over the seething masses of people as they desperately made for the exits in fear.
Sam started to shake.
“Sam, keep cool, OK?” Tobias said. “Let’s get down to Issey. The Guardians will move in from the exits to help us get out.”
The screams intensified to the left of them. Glowsticks were moving fast—away from something.
Then, thin blue laser lights pierced the gloom, dozens of them, emerging from the four main entry points.
“Ah,” Tobias said. “I’d say Stella and her thugs have crashed the party.”
“Where was our Guardian warning?”
“I don’t know.”
“What are the laser pointers they’re using?”
“They’re using low-light optics and laser aiming on their dart rifles. Follow me.”
Sam followed close behind Tobias, who was talking into his phone’s mic. They rushed to Issey on stage.
“Sam, you and Issey go out through the south exit, there,” Tobias pointed across the room.
“But the Agents—”
“The Guardians were called to the south by a fake distress call,” Tobias said. “They’re coming in behind her force there now, they’ll blast you a hole to escape.”
“What about you?” Sam said.
“I’m going to create a diversion,” Tobias said. “Here, take a couple of these.”
He passed Sam three heavy objects, the size of table tennis balls, with a tiny switch on each.
“Smoke screens,” Tobias said, switching on a couple and tossing them. “Now go, run, and I’ll contact you outside once we’re all clear!”
WHACK!
Sam shot a rogue Agent in the chest.
WHACK!
And another.
“Can I have one of those?” Issey asked, pointing to Sam’s dart gun, but Sam didn’t have time to answer. The stairwell to the south erupted with twelve Guardians, each of the hulking soldiers taking expert aim at the traitorous Agents and dispatching them, surprise on their side.
“Issey, follow me!” Sam said, heading for the safety cordon that the Guardians had formed. “Run!”
15
ALEX
“You want the good news or the bad news first?” Shiva asked.
“What?”
Alex checked the countdown.
4:34
The elevator to the lobby had taken twenty seconds. They now stood in the middle of a bustling city street. After a week of being cooped up in the apartment, the bright sunshine and noise of life around them was almost overwhelming.
“OK, the bad news is we’re farther away than I thought,” Shiva said.
“And the good?!”
“We’ve got a flying carpet to get us there!” Shiva said. He ran to a messenger’s motorcycle, the engine idling, its owner obviously inside one of the corporate buildings nearby, distracted with an urgent delivery. “Get on!”
Alex didn’t need to be told twice.
Shiva threw the bike into gear and dropped the clutch, gunning the throttle as they burned a circle of rubber and took off down the street. Alex looked back just in time to see an angry messenger standing in the middle of the road, shouting and pulling out a phone.
That’s all we need—more cops after us!
Alex couldn’t stop checking the countdown on the display.
4:29
Shiva took a hard right turn at the next intersection, steering frantically between cars, then weaving around a line of cabs, taking the oncoming lane which was largely deserted.
4:11
Come on, come on!
Five blocks down, Alex chose a new mantra.
We’re gonna make it. We’re gonna make it.
The light ahead was red. Cars and trucks began to travel across the intersection as their traffic lane slowed down.
We’re not going to make it!
Shiva didn’t slow down. He sped up, opening the throttle the whole way. They flashed through the intersection, scraping between a truck and car.
Alex closed his eyes. He heard horns blare and tires screech.
Shiva whooped in victory, the bike wobbling dangerously as he pumped the air.
Alex looked back.
Two cars had swerved to avoid hitting them, colliding with one another in an awful-sounding smash. Both drivers had their doors open fast, looking down the road at the bike, shaking their fists in rage.
Shiva didn’t bother looking back. He just kept on riding, speeding ahead, taking them south, toward where he thought Matrix would be.
Alex checked his wristband.
3:52
We will make it—
Shiva slammed on the brakes.
The bike was shrouded in smoke from burning rubber as the locked-up wheels kept careening them forward.
Oh no!
The intersection at 31st Street was a traffic jam and a cab door opened right in front of them, blocking off the space Shiva had been aiming for.
Shiva downshifted gears, keeping the brakes locked, revving the engine.
But it was too late.
We’re gonna crash!
They hit the taxi door and both of them catapulted from the bike, flying through the air.
16
SAM
Outside the stadium, Sam and Issey ran in among the stream of thousands of spectators.
“We need to get in a car!” Sam said.
“This way!” Issey replied, peeling off from the main crowd and heading for a building.
“Issey, we need a car, not cover!” Sam said, but he went unheard because Issey was fast—very fast. Sam sprinted across the street and down a parking garage ramp and came to a level full of cars—and no people.
“Issey?” Sam called.
I’m sure he ran down here …
He turned around and around but could see no one. “Issey!”
VROOM!
“Argh!” Sam jumped out of the way as a bright yellow sports car screeched up behind him.
Issey was at the wheel.
“Get in!” Issey yelled.
Sam did.
And regretted it almost at once.
“Isssssssseeeeeeey!” Sam said, his face plastered to the inside of the passenger window as Issey did a handbrake turn outside the garage and roared up the street at warp speed. “This is scarier than being back there in the arena!” Sam muttered.
“Hang on!” Issey said, pulling on the brake again and turning in a cloud of tire smoke. He hit the accelerator and they were moving at light speed once more, this time down the wrong way of a one-way street.
“Issey, you don’t have to drive like a madman!” Sam said. “We just need to get some distance between us and them.”
“Oh, there’s a rush,” Issey replied. “Look behind us.”
Sam turned around in the seat, steadying himself as Issey flipped the steering wheel to slide them out onto a new street.
Behind, two other cars made the same turns.
“Right,” Sam said. He wound down the window, pressed a button on a smoke bomb, and tossed it out.
He watched for the result, which was almost instant.
BANG!
The smoke erupted into a thick cloud, forming a wall across the street.
But both pursuing cars punched through it, not even slowing for a second.
“Seriously?” Sam said, buckling up and looking to Issey. “OK, do it your way, shake them.”
“On it!” Issey replied, stomping on the brakes.
Their car screeched to a sudden stop.
“You’re stopping?” Sam said, then saw the sense of the plan.
Both the pursuing cars flashed by, surprised by the move and braking too late. Too late, because Issey was already reversing—fast.
It’s like he’s in a game and he’s thinking several steps ahead.
“Isseeeey!” Sam said as Issey was in motion with another move—several in fact. He pulled the handbrake and flicked the steering wheel, turning the car on the spot and speeding them down the road, taking two quick turns and then flooring it. Sam looked behind. Stella’s cars were nowhere to be seen—yet.
“Nice driving!” Sam said, working out a crick in his neck. “Where’d you learn all this?”
“On a console.”
“You’re not serious?” Sam laughed.
“Yep.”
“But you have a licence, right?”
“How old do you think I am?” Issey grinned.
“Uh-oh. Then whose car is this?”
“Somebody’s,” Issey replied.
“Huh?”
“I boosted it.”
“What?” Sam shook his head.
“I took the keys from the attendant’s booth,” Issey said. “My parents park their car there, and you have to leave the keys. The old guy’s always falling asleep, and I’ve seen this car there before … hang on.”
Sam grabbed hold of the dashboard in front of him as Issey pulled the brake and drifted onto a side road, releasing the brake to shoot down the street in one smooth motion.
Issey looked to Sam and smiled. “What?” he said.
“I—nothing,” Sam said, hanging on for dear life as Issey navigated them via another drift onto a highway on-ramp, taking them up onto an elevated road. He looked out the rear window. There were no cars following them now. “Just head someplace safe, preferably in one piece.”
“Will do,” Issey said, then his demeanour changed.