Approaching Storm (Alternate Worlds Book 2)

by Taylor Leigh

  Sam glanced at him. ‘That’s tonight.’

  He nodded and continued. ‘“All employees are to report to the Myrmidon base for an extensive search of all Druid cities, Miol Mor and Flotsen for Samantha Turner. Her last location was in Miol Mor, so all searches will begin there, tracking all mobile devices, card swipes and security cameras; same will be done for outlying cities both on Druid and Tartan land, including a door to door search on Druid land under the pretence of looking for an escaped convict. All those not involved with the search will either be posted in the cities, monitoring and providing a base for searchers, or remain back at the base. All regular schedules will be halted during the search and all resources will be devoted to bringing the search to a quick and fruitful close.”.’

  Sam felt her insides turn to a numbing ice. ‘Can they really do that? Monitor all that, I mean? That has to be illegal.’

  ‘Oh, it is,’ Tollin nodded. ‘But they’re capable of accomplishing it. You should feel flattered with the amount of attention they’re giving you. You’re becoming popular.’

  Sam wrinkled her nose. ‘If they know we’re that close…what about people I know here, my mates, family, Darius?’

  Tollin sighed heavily. ‘Your friends and family think you’re dead, if they’re approached, then they won’t have anything to tell. Is your relationship with Darius posted anywhere, social networks?’

  Sam ran a shaky hand through her hair, still not used to its shortened length. ‘Well, yeah, but he wasn’t into sites like that. There might be a few images of us, but I don’t know if they’d be able to track that.’

  Tollin frowned thoughtfully. ‘Oh, they can track anything. But, it should show you haven’t been communicating with him for some time. Our meeting with him the other night was hopefully sufficiently untraceable. If Darius has half a brain then he’ll not let on if he’s questioned. I doubt he’s in any real trouble. You weren’t spotted with him, you were spotted with me.’

  Sam allowed his words to relax her slightly. ‘I just don’t want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt on my account.’

  Tollin gave her a sad smile. ‘I understand completely. All too well.’ He went to absently searching through the folders. At the rate he navigated through the information, Sam found it doubtful he was actually seeing anything save for the distinctive hum running through the back of her mind that she recognised as his thoughts. He glanced at another folder. ‘Hang on, now what’s this?’ He opened it. All Sam could see was gibberish.

  ‘Can you read that?’ she eyed the text dubiously.

  ‘Nope,’ Tollin said, already typing like a madman. ‘It’s encrypted. But just give me a moment.’ His fingers were flying across the keypad at an impossible blur. ‘Ah! There we are! That’s better!’

  The text shifted over from code to legible lines of words. She stepped closer to his side, peering closer at the screen he was studying.

  ‘Let’s see here,’ Tollin mused. ‘This is about our friend’s little chair project…Being headed up by Avery Roth, and the two main scientists who worked on it: Erikson and Arkron.’

  ‘What?’ Marus straightened.

  ‘She saw us at the base,’ Tollin said offhandedly to his brother. ‘They’ve attached banks of computers to hold information with the intention of keeping the portal open indefinitely, even after the anniversary hits.’

  Sam’s eyes caught another line of text several down from what Tollin was perusing. ‘Look here: “The chair, it has been decided, cannot be worked by any random subject. All experiments so far have proven this. Termination occurred in ever study. Out of eighteen trials, there have been eighteen fails. It is believed now that the chair must be kick-started by a person capable of jumping from dimension to dimension, if one does exist. According to ancient texts, this proves true.”.’ Sam glanced at Tollin in confusion. ‘What’s that mean by “eighteen trials and failures”?’

  He swallowed heavily, expression taking on a sickened, angry quality. ‘I think they’ve been using people to try and jump-start the portal. Probably against their will.’

  The word termination seemed to burn brighter on the screen than the rest. Sam felt ill.

  ‘Oh my gods’ she breathed, scanning over the board notes. ‘They’re killing people, trying to randomly find someone who can open the portal!’

  Tollin’s eyes grew dark. ‘So it would seem.’

  She felt her mouth go dry. Even after all she’d seen this group do, the idea of systematically experimenting and killing eighteen people was difficult to believe. ‘What do we do? This place is hardly inconspicuous. And if they’re scanning for tech, they’ll see this place is humming with it. Not to mention there’s a tie between us and Arkron now.’

  ‘Unfortunately, Sam, I think you’re right. It’s probably only a short matter of time before they track us down. Which means…we’re going to have to take things into our own hands and rid them of the reason they’re after us.’

  Sam’s muscles all bunched up inside of her. ‘You want to destroy the chair, don’t you?’

  ‘Yup.’ He smiled wickedly.

  Sam bit her bottom lip, her heart giving a twitch.

  Marus groaned. ‘You’d be out of your mind wanting to waltz back in there and destroy their pride and joy!’

  Tollin swung around to face him. ‘It will be the best place to go. The base will be emptied out; all of their resources will be devoted to tracking Samantha down. All we have to do is set off some signal in Miol Mor or Flotsen from Sam’s old banking card to send them off on the wrong track and then we can slip in with no trouble!’

  Marus shook his head. ‘I find your flawed logic very disturbing. Just how are you planning on getting in? You just going to traipse in through the front entrance?’

  Tollin waved him away. ‘There’s always another way.’

  * * * * *

  Tollin proved himself an expert when it came to breaking and entering. It made Sam all the more curious about his life story. She watched as he fiddled with the lock and after a moment he turned and offered her a smug grin in the darkness. The red light of Scrabia above gave his face a rosy glow.

  Marus rolled his eyes, not at all happy to be accompanying them. ‘Aren’t you clever?’

  ‘Welcome to Myrmidon headquarters, after hours,’ he announced, swinging the door open. A crimson jewel glinted from a band wrapped round his finger. A decoy ring. Tollin had insisted on wearing it. By his logic, the Myrmidons would naturally assume he’d have the ring by now, and so best to be on the safe side.

  He did appear to like surprises like that.

  Sam smiled back. ‘Even more fun in the dark!’ she whispered. To help keep up the illusion, Sam wore knit gloves she’d found in one of the cupboards.

  Tollin smirked playfully. ‘Come on.’

  Marus followed them, grumbling.

  The delivery area was almost completely empty. A few overhead lights shone down near the centre of the room like spotlights on a stage, leaving the outlying edges in shadowy darkness. Over a radio speaker came the voice of an excited announcer, shouting out wild descriptions of a football game. Several workers moved here and there among the crates, but they were much more focused on their conversations about the match than with their surroundings.

  Tollin led the way, picking a path that wound into the shadows, giving the warehouse workers a wide berth.

  According to Tollin, they shouldn’t have to concern themselves with such things anyway. Before arriving, he’d produced battered circular objects the relative size of coins, offering the explanation that they would distract most from noticing them. How well they worked, however, Sam wasn’t so sure.

  Since Sam hadn’t been in the delivery lot before, she was completely turned around and had no idea where Tollin was leading them. Still, he seemed to have a clear sense of direction, and that gave her some comfort. At the opposite end of the room was a large, open supply lift and this was the direction Tollin was making a beeline for.
>
  Her insides were coiling up in excitement. Following after Tollin, doing something as risky as they were now, with all the new knowledge she had in her brain, felt completely natural. She felt invincible. She felt alive. Real people didn’t do this sort of thing. So what did that make her?

  Tollin pulled up just across from the supply lift and gave it a good look-over. She watched his shining eyes go darting every which-way. Sam saw nothing. The workers were at the far end of the warehouse, well beyond seeing them.

  Tollin ducked across and slid into the lift. Several large crates and boxes were already loaded and he disappeared inside. Sam and Marus hurried in after him. Sam squeezed around several cardboard boxes till she found Tollin and took her place by his side. He glanced down at her.

  ‘If I remember correctly—and I usually always do—then this lift should take us straight down to the cataloguing room. Should be abandoned. No-one will be working down there that late. Skeleton crew tonight from what I’ve seen, everyone is all out searching for you.’

  Sam wiggled behind the stacked crates. ‘What happens if there is someone down there?’

  He smiled at her. ‘Then things will get much more interesting.’

  Marus, arms crossed tightly across his chest, hit the button with his elbow on Tollin’s signal. As the doors started to rattle closed, there came a loud cheer from across the warehouse, drowning out the noise. Marus flashed a smile. ‘Should have put some money on Linsdon.’

  The lift finally bumped to a halt, jostling its passengers and Sam tensed as she watched the doors slide open. Just as Tollin had predicted, the room they were deposited in was empty. It was also pitch dark. Beside her came the sounds of Tollin muttering as he fished about and flicked on a torch, lighting up a tower of boxes. Just beyond the beam loomed large shelves.

  He took off at a confident stride towards a thin rectangle of light marking the exit. A sliding, grating noise behind Sam made her jump and caused Marus to swear.

  ‘Do mind where you’re walking,’ Tollin said, tone barely patient. ‘We are in a storeroom, after all.’

  Fortunately, the door was not locked and when Tollin cautiously swung it open, Sam saw the familiar, dull grey hallways stretching out every direction before them. Without much pause, Tollin immediately took a path that turned to the left.

  In the heart of the base Sam couldn’t fight down the excited apprehension that kept rising up inside of her. Marus didn’t have the confident calm that Tollin projected and he was an antsy mess of nerves. Sam saw no cause for the state he was in. He was a bloody dragon, for stars’ sake.

  ‘Will you calm down?’ Tollin said after a moment, eyeing his brother.

  Marus grit his teeth and swung his firearm around a corner, eyes wide in frantic scanning. ‘Not likely! You do realise that this is more than likely a trap. We’re in the centre of enemy territory after their most prized creation and you two think it’s all good!’

  Sam hurried to stay close to Tollin. She glanced back at Marus, wanting to ignore the sense of his words. ‘You’re a dragon! You shouldn’t be nervous about anything.’

  Marus muttered something under his breath.

  ‘You two, hush!’ Tollin ordered. ‘We don’t want to get picked up on any sensors. Any excess noise and the cloak devices won’t be able to stop it.’

  ‘If they even work,’ Marus quipped. ‘You’ve had these damn things for ever. Please excuse me if I doubt their effectiveness.’

  They walked in relative silence after that. Sam was finding trouble deciding if she should keep her eyes on her surroundings or on Tollin. She was confident he knew where he was taking them, even though she’d seen him only glance at the plans momentarily.

  When he finally stopped, Sam was surprised to find she knew where they were. Back at the lab. She smugly thought to herself he was rather clever.

  Tollin skilfully cracked the lock and let them all in through the records room. Everything was dark and powered down. He went through to the far room and only then did he stop.

  ‘So,’ Marus said, standing beside them. ‘That’s it then.’

  They stood in front of the glass wall. On the other side of the transparent barrier was the gateway, and sitting before it, like some wicked, metal spider, was the chair.

  Sam swallowed numbly as she watched the red gem above the arch flicker to life with an almost eerie heartbeat. She pulled her glove off. The red throbbing glow was mirrored by her hand. If the gateway reacted to her at this distance, what would happen once she was next to it?

  Tollin, if he’d been thinking these same thoughts at all, didn’t seem concerned. He trotted over to the panel and went to work. After several moments, it beeped, allowing access.

  Marus warily walked into the glass room after them. ‘Anyone else find this funny?’ he asked slowly. ‘How easy it was to walk in here?’

  Sam had been feeling much the same. She wished she hadn’t. She could sense from Tollin his curiosity outweighing any caution in his mind. It was messing with her own caution as well. Perhaps Marus was the only sane one in the group.

  Tollin strode over to the machine and gazed at the chair. It was a nasty contraption, with leg and wrist straps, and a helmet device that held more wires and probes than Sam could count. A huge twist of wires ran from the wall and plugged in behind the chair and gateway, but it all sat quiet, turned off.

  Tollin ran his hands over the gateway and ducked his head inside the frame without a thought.

  ‘There are crystals lining this. They look like…well, random rocks they just pulled from the ground. Some of them aren’t from this Realm, this one looks like a souvenir a Realm Jumper would pick up on holiday. I don’t think they contain much power. Doubt the Myrmidons know that, though.’

  Sam ran her eyes along the length of one of the pink crystals. She felt none of the same pull at her insides that she felt towards the stone blinking at the top of the arch. ‘How did they get a hold of all these?’

  Tollin tried to free one of the crystals, unsuccessfully. ‘These planets are old. Very old. And things tend to wash up on worlds after years of jumpers travelling. Things are bound to be lost over all those years of tourism. Wars were waged, pockets were picked, precious things were dropped. They’re all found eventually.’

  Sam watched him work; feeling a sort of stirring in her that Tollin always seemed to awaken when he spoke like that. Bringing to life a sense of wonder and awe at the world, accepting that there was so much more out there than she ever knew. ‘You make it sounds as if everyone who lives here is nothing but some exotic species for Realm Jumpers to come and look at.’

  Tollin smirked. ‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that. Just natives who are unaware there are tourists in their midst. If you know what to look for, then you’ll see. There have been entire wars involving different species you’ll never know about over rights to Realms like this.’

  Sam watched his narrow backside with a wry grin as he wiggled to get a better look at the wires. ‘Suppose I should have known you were an alien when I first saw you. No-one from Scottorr would ever behave like that.’

  He looked over his shoulder. ‘Oi! I’m not an alien!’ Tollin ducked back inside the doorway. ‘Well, anyway, some people had crystals. Part of a brotherhood or whatever. Most of them died in a war and their crystals were lost. The Myrmidons have been digging them up all this time.’

  ‘Uh, guys?’ From behind them, Marus let out an uneasy groan.

  Sam ducked her head in next to Tollin’s. She looked up to him, finding it difficult to make out his features in such a close space. ‘How did the Myrmidons know what the stones would do?’

  Tollin frowned thoughtfully. ‘Oh, they probably don’t. Guesses most likely. There’s texts, and there have been stories pass down. The thing about these crystals—the real ones, I mean—is that they need a Realm Jumper to use them, they don’t do much, some of them can be a safe little teleporter, some of them just glow pretty colours, nothing exciting. Careful you don’t tou
ch any of them. I’m not quite sure what will happen.

  ‘However, the stone up at the top of this is different.’ Tollin stood on the seat of the chair, contorted his body through the arch and started to try and work the red stone free. ‘It’s the mother of all powerful crystals and your ring is a shard of it. This stone can actually connect with other Realms and form a gateway, during the anniversary, as you know. I don’t think it can do it on its own, though. It needs its little shard.’

  Sam crossed her arms across her chest to keep her hands away from the device. ‘So they need each other. They’re reacting like they are one thing.’

  Tollin looked at her proudly. ‘Very good!’ He struggled with the stone a moment more. ‘They certainly don’t want anyone getting hold of it! Marus, get up here and give me a hand!’ He clawed at the stone, then pulled out a penknife and started scraping around the edges. ‘Blimey! You can feel the power this thing is wafting off! The machine isn’t even turned on and this stone is bursting with energy. It must be feeding off of the generator they’ve been building, even when it’s not turned on, a bit like the ring feeding off of you, Sam.’

  She shuddered at the thought. ‘Hang on, if it’s so charged then won’t it—’

  There was a bright spark and Tollin wobbled backwards, losing his footing. The smell of smoke filled the air.

  ‘Ah, yes,’ Tollin said, waving the smoke away. ‘Well, that proves a problem. We may possibly need to rethink our strategy. More drastic measures. Marus!’

  Sam gave him an exasperated look. ‘Do we even have a strategy?’

  ‘Will you two shut up and pay attention?’ Marus snapped in a loud whisper.

  Sam and Tollin both withdrew from the chair and turned to see what Marus was looking at.

  It was a computer screen; blank, except for a line to bold text.

  WELCOME, SAMANTHA TURNER AND THE TRAVELLER.

  A cold, horrible feeling wrapped itself around Sam. She couldn’t tear her gaze away. The blinking bar backed up, and then went back to waiting.