by Gareth Otton
“I might actually be an idiot,” he muttered to Growler. “This is the last thing we needed.”
As if in answer, Growler’s eyes opened, and he pulled away from Tad’s hand. However, he wasn’t responding to Tad, he was looking at the door with ears pricked up like he had heard something. A moment later, Tad’s door was nudged open by a little black nose and Freckles pushed his way inside, tail wagging as he recognised his brother and Tad.
He probably sensed us arrive, Tad thought as he put Growler down, continually amazed at these puppies and their talents.
Growler and Freckles met each other with an excited round of sniffing and nudging before Freckles ran over to Tad to say a happy, doggy hello and get some attention of his own.
“You’re finally back,” said a voice from the doorway that Tad should have expected.
“I wasn’t gone long,” he protested. “Barely twenty minutes, and it is my lunch break.”
“Whatever,” Stella said, waving off his words like they were unimportant. “Come with me, I’ve got something to show you.”
He was caught by surprise at the excitement in her voice, but never got chance to ask her what was happening as she was already gone, heading back the way she came. Growler followed her out, and seeing that his brother was running off, Freckles wasn’t far behind them.
Does this make me just another dog being called to heel if I follow them out?
Dismissing the irrational thought as another side effect of his weariness, he climbed to his feet and rushed out the room.
Surprisingly, by the time he caught up they had gone right by Stella’s office and were hurrying to the other side of the building. They passed the large, open plan office the detectives and Denise shared and Stella paused just long enough to open the last door in the corridor that revealed the jungle of wires and flashing lights that filled Miles Avon’s office. Tad didn’t come here much as he feared accidentally pulling the wrong wire, pressing the wrong button, or just getting in the way. He had never been technologically minded and as a result had never really clicked with the strange computer specialist.
Today he found Miles perched before his bank of screens that had grown from the three Tad remembered, to six. There were four ultra-wide monitors set up in two rows of two, and two more monitors turned on their side to bracket the formation. It looked like overkill to Tad, but there wasn’t an inch of free space. Windows filled with code, web browsers, security footage and databases were scattered across the enormous space and Miles was confidently moving amongst them like a skilled conductor guiding an orchestra.
“Miles, I found him. Go back to what you were showing me earlier,” Stella announced as soon as she opened the door.
Miles jumped, pulling headphones from his ears as he spun to face them. He flinched when he noticed Stella’s impatient expression, then nodded in greeting to Tad before he turned back to his screens and started clicking his mouse.
“Tad, come look at this,” Stella said, grabbing his arm and tugging him into the room with strength that made him a little uncomfortable. He had no chance to resist and wouldn’t be surprised to find bruises where her fingers gripped him. He would protest were she not so excited. “You recognise these people?”
Tad didn’t know which screen to look at. There were four windows that each held security footage and the browsers in the other windows also had some photos of people.
“Which people?” he asked, squinting as he tried to get his tired eyes to focus.
“The security footage, any of the windows. It doesn’t matter.”
“Can you make them bigger,” he reluctantly asked after another moment. “I can’t quite see them.”
Stella frowned. “But they’re—”
“No problems,” Miles interrupted, and soon enough two of his ultra wide screens were filled with the security footage, two windows per screen.
Tad quickly recognised the footage was from various hardware stores. A myriad of tools and cans of paint lined the shelves of three of the windows, while the fourth window showed a view of a checkout counter where a cashier was scanning through cans of paint. However, it wasn’t the cashier Stella wanted him to see, it was the people buying paint in all four windows.
“That’s them,” he whispered, his tiredness forgotten as suddenly his heart was pounding. “The two that attacked me and Jacob. The Dreamcatchers. That’s them.”
“I knew it,” Stella said, punching Miles’ shoulder and making the poor man wince. “I told you it would be them.”
“I never said otherwise,” Miles protested, looking at Tad for support. Unfortunately, Tad was a little preoccupied with what he saw on the screen.
“Who are they?” he asked.
“Mitena and Kuruk Campbell,” Stella answered. “They’re twins from Chicago. They dropped out of college this year, citing a personal tragedy as their reasons. They lost both of their parents in a car crash when they were children and were raised by their grandparents, both of whom are now also dead. They’ve got no other family, so we’re assuming the tragedy they’re talking about is the death of this young woman.”
On cue Miles fired up another window, and a photo of a pretty young woman appeared. She was the epitome of the American cheerleader stereotype, right down to the girl next door looks and innocent expression.
“This is Lucy Kingsmore. She grew up near the Campbells and was in a relationship with the brother. She killed herself earlier this year.”
“She killed herself?” Tad asked.
“We’re not sure why,” Stella answered. “However, strangely, I’ve met her before. She was the victim of a Dream related incident here at New Year. It wouldn’t surprise me if it has something to do with that. I’ve put out some feelers, but we’re still waiting for confirmation.”
Tad shook his head, amazed. “How did you get all this?”
“After we ran into those arsehole FBI agents, I got thinking about the giant dreamcatchers that were painted at each crime scene and how much paint that probably took. I played a hunch. I contacted local hardware stores that were near killings in areas where there weren’t many hardware stores to choose from, and asked for security footage for a week either side of each murder. Miles ran it through one of his programmes that searched the footage for faces that appear in more than one set of footage. He said it would be done by Monday, but—”
“Two of the stores were still using tapes if you can believe that. I had to wait to digitise them before I could run them through my software,” Miles protested. Those protests fell on deaf ears as Stella wasn’t interested now she had her answers.
“From there, Miles did his tech wizardry to find information on them, I reached out to some contacts in the US to find out more, and all we were waiting on was you for confirmation,” Stella said, sounding like he should have known this was happening and not made her wait.
“I was gone for less than twenty minutes,” he complained, sharing a knowing look with Miles as both of them felt put upon right now.
Just as she had with Miles, Stella waved his comment off as unimportant.
“The point is, we have confirmation now. We also know where these two live. So you only have to answer one more question,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“You feeling up to a trip across the Atlantic to help us catch some dreamcatchers?”
For the first time in days, Tad felt himself grin and actually mean it.
“Finally,” he said in answer, and Stella grinned right back.
19
Thursday, 14th July 2016
10:00
Tad threw up his hands in exasperation and turned away, blinking hard as he tried to refocus his eyes. He doubted his anger helped the situation or his eyesight, but he couldn’t keep it inside. Only Stella’s hand on his arm kept him from losing his temper and taking matters into his own hands.
They clustered around a large, black SUV, parked on a quiet, suburban street in Chicago. At this time of
day, most home owners were at work, which left driveways empty and few eyes to watch the three other black SUVs and the SWAT truck that were parked, waiting for orders. However, said orders were slow coming as the FBI agents were arguing again.
“I understand what you’re saying,” Stella said as calmly as she could to agent Astur. “But you have to understand, we developed protocols for—”
“Fuck your protocols,” agent Holmes snapped, every bit as hot headed as when they first met. “You might be queen bee back in England, but this is America and—”
“Wales,” Stella interrupted.
“What?”
“The Dream Team is based in Wales, not England.”
“What’s the difference?” Holmes asked, growing angrier by the second. “What does it matter where you came from?”
“What agent Holmes is trying to say is that you may have your procedures, but we have ours. While your Prime Minister pulled strings to make this happen, you are not in charge. You’re observing only. So we’ll be taking lead on this and you can—”
Tad had endured enough.
They had been kept waiting after Stella insisted on running their information through Norman before they acted on it yesterday. Norman insisted they couldn’t take action in America without irreparably damaging UK-US relations, and they’d have to wait. So they waited nearly a whole day, and Tad was fed up with it.
Shrugging off Stella’s hand, he turned on the agents and waved a hand in their direction. A quick call to Dream was all it took to augment the stirred up air into a gale force wind that knocked the two agents back, their suit jackets billowing as they struggled to stay on their feet. Another thought was all it took to stop Holmes doing anything stupid in response. Tad focused on the friction between his gun and the holster it was cradled in, increasing it to where no matter how hard the agent struggled, he couldn’t pull it free.
“That was just a wave of my hand and a thought,” Tad snapped at the two men. “Imagine what I could do if I really wanted to cause trouble. I don’t care what your way of doing things are, you aren’t prepared for people like me. We’ve agreed to your demands until now. We put off moving on these two until you and your people could be ready. We left our own tactical unit behind so you could use yours, and we agreed to let you keep control of the prisoners and carry out the interrogation on US soil. But we have to draw the line somewhere. This is it. We,” Tad motioned to himself and to the two startled dreamwalkers standing in the distance, neither looking happy about being pointed out. “Are uniquely qualified to counter anything those dreamcatchers might throw at you. If you send your men in without us you’ll just get them all killed.”
“Our team can handle themselves,” agent Astur insisted.
“Really? Just how well did you defend against that wind, and just how well is Sherlock doing at getting his gun out?” Tad asked, not backing down even though Stella’s touch on his arm was a death grip by now. “You’re defenceless against those people and you won’t last five minutes without our help.” Finally he succumbed to Stella’s insistent tugging and stepped away, giving the men space to recover.
Agent Astur instantly relaxed. Agent Holmes, on the other hand, finally cleared the gun from his holster and looked like he wanted to use it.
“Harry, are you crazy?” Astur snapped, dragging the agent away until they were out of earshot and the gun was no longer pointing in Tad’s direction.
“I could ask you the same question,” Stella said once they were alone. “Are you trying to start a fight with these people?”
“Come on, this is beyond stupid. We’ve given in to every demand, and I get that they want this to be a US victory, but not using us is stupid. No, it’s worse than that, it will get people killed and allow those dreamcatchers to escape. When will we ever get this chance again?”
“I know. I’m on your side. I’m just saying that there are ways to go about this that won’t get you shot.”
Tad snorted and turned away, leaning against the car and rubbing his eyes.
“Are you alright?” Stella asked, the frown so clear in her words he didn’t need to look.
“Yeah, just tired,” he said. “I can’t wait to get this over with so I can get some rest. The stress is getting to me a bit…” His words trailed off as he laughed. “God, look who I’m talking to. Sorry Stella, I didn’t mean to say I’m more stressed than you are or—”
“I get it,” Stella interrupted, still concerned. “You’re not alright though. You haven’t been all day, and you’re rubbing your eyes a lot. What’s going on?”
“It’s just tiredness,” Tad said. “I need to get this done so I can rest easy for a night. I’ll be alright with a few hours of… Hang on, here they come.”
Stella reluctantly turned with him to see the two agents walking back. Holmes didn’t look happy about something, but at least he didn’t have his gun out. Astur looked only a little better, and it was he who spoke.
“Alright. Your point is made. You three go in alongside our men. They’ll listen to you on anything Dream related, but for everything else you’re under their command. And that’s the only offer we will make. You accept that or we go in without you.”
“We can work with that,” Stella answered. “Now that’s sorted, shall we get on with this?”
There was only the slightest hesitation on Astur’s part as he stared at Tad, but finally he nodded and turned on the spot, making a hand symbol to the other cars that told his people to come in close. Soon he was surrounded by men in tactical gear while Stella pulled Tad away and motioned to their own people a short way off. They didn’t have anywhere near the numbers the Americans had, but Tad would take the two people they had been allowed to bring over them any day.
“Morris, Chakikra, come here,” Stella said once they were far enough away from the Americans that they could talk without being overheard. “You hear any of that?” she asked. They shook their heads. “Right, this is what’s happening. We got them to let us go in with them as support, rather than just watching from the sidelines.”
Morris snorted, the normally quiet dreamwalker shaking his head and glancing at the FBI huddle.
“That’s what you were arguing about?” he asked. “I assumed that would be a given.”
“Yeah, well, the two agents have made it more than clear they don’t trust us and would rather we weren’t here.”
“How were they planning to deal with any Dream powers?” Chakikra asked with innocent curiosity, not yet jaded enough to show the same contempt that Morris had.
“Overwhelming force and bravado,” Tad said, earning an irritated glare from Stella. He looked away, pretending to be interested in the two puppies in the nearest SUV who stood on their hind legs so they could lean out the open window.
“The point is, we’re going in with them and we’re letting them lead,” Stella said. “For anything non Dream related, you do exactly what they say. That clear?”
Both Morris and Chakikra nodded.
“What if it is Dream related?” Chakikra asked.
“Then you do what you must. Warn them, deal with the Dream elements, but no more,” Stella said. “I can’t stress this enough, you’re not here to fight these people. You’re here to help with Dream and let the tactical guys do what they can. Ideally, we let Tad deal with them. You got it?”
Both dreamwalkers nodded, though Morris was frowning while Chakikra was looking a little wild-eyed.
“Good. I’ll be watching from outside and I’ll be in contact the entire time. If I give the word, I don’t care what’s happening, you get out of there by any means necessary. If you can, take people with you, but if they refuse to leave you just dreamwalk away. Is that clear?”
Again both dreamwalkers nodded and Stella finally smiled.
“This is a big deal for us, guys. We not only get to show what we can do on foreign soil, but those two people in there could be the answer we need to getting rid of nightmares once and for all. Let’s do
this, but be careful. Now go get your protective gear on and let’s get ready to go.”
It turned out Stella’s words were perfect timing as the FBI huddle broke up with agents returning to their vehicles, ready to move out.
“Finally,” Tad said.
“Everything I just said to them,” Stella whispered urgently before he was whisked away to go ride with a tactical team. “It goes double for you, Holcroft. No heroics, you hear me?”
Tad forced a smile. “Are you kidding? I’m just Dream eyes and ears today, nothing more,” Tad said.
Stella scowled as she sensed the lie.
“Look, I know you’ll have to get involved, but don’t go biting off more than you can chew,” she demanded. “Don’t underestimate them. These people are second only to Joshua King and Dinah Mizrahi with how many dreamwalkers they’ve killed. Don’t be the next name on their list, you hear?”
“I hear,” he said. “I promise, no unnecessary risks.”
There was more truth to that statement than the last, but Stella didn’t look any happier. She didn’t get chance to argue though as the agents returned, telling Tad who he needed to ride with and just what role he would play in the assault. Tad listened, shook the hand of the man leading the tactical team and was told to stay by his side no matter what. Tad agreed to everything they asked, just eager to get this over with.
“Get your head in the game.”
Tad grunted as the elbow hit his ribs and glared at the stern-faced tactical agent. He stared back from under his helmet, clearly thinking Tad wasn’t concentrating. He couldn’t have been further from the truth. Tad was completely in the moment, but he was trying to focus his eyes before they made the final approach.
They were in the garden of a neighbour to the Campbell twins, having parked one street over. They were hiding their approach by cutting through other properties after deciding it was too dangerous to just pull up outside.
“Trust me, I’m ready.”