I knew it was coming. I didn’t even think I was in the running. Not only did I have to think about how she should tell Alex that she couldn’t be with him, I had to think about how to tell Mera I wasn’t sure her and I were the best fit.
I asked Randy if he wanted to take a break from the phones for a little bit and he jumped on it, until I told him where we were going. He was wary about getting in the rowboat with me, so I assured him the bay wasn’t a lake, it wasn’t that big and it would take all but ten minutes tops to row across. At least, so I thought.
“Oh, I don’t know, Sonny,” Randy shook his head. “I don’t swim.”
“I do. You’re good. I can save you if you fall in.”
“This looks awfully little.”
“It’s fine. Go on, get in.”
“Are you sure?” Randy asked.
“Positive.”
Maybe I really wasn’t, because I was second guessing myself when Randy got in the boat. I forgot how big he actually was. When he sat down, the boat dipped and when I got in, that rowboat wasn’t floating completely on top.
Rowing wasn’t easy. There was a lot of weight in the boat. I swore it was my exercise for the day.
I didn’t really have a plan other than getting to the man across the bay. Once we arrived and tied the line, we walked up a path that I assumed led to his house.
The house was small, but great, with a backyard fenced in with an inground pool and three sets of sliding glass doors from the house. I wondered where they led. Who needed three sliding glass doors?
The man who lived here wouldn’t have those answers, since he’d arrived after the event.
“This is nice,” Randy said.
“Yeah, it is.”
“In my time we all live in housing. Government issued housing. Like apartments.”
“That sucks.”
“Well, it really doesn’t. You only know it sucks when you know there’s something better out there.”
“Can I help you?” the male voice carried to us.
I turned to him, figuring it had to be the Peter guy everyone was talking about and literally froze. In all the conversations in the last day about Peter, no one mentioned to me that he looked an awful lot like Mera’s dead husband, Daniel. Not that I knew Daniel, but I’d seen pictures and he and I looked alike, just like Peter would resemble me if I had darker hair.
“My god.” Peter walked up to me.
“I know,” I said. “We look alike.”
“Not that,” Peter said. “You’re Logan Wilson.”
“Holy cow,” Randy blurted out. “I forgot that was your real name.”
“You know me?” I asked.
“Logan’s Logs.” Peter nodded. “Many pictures of you passed the test of time. Some were drawings.”
“Wow, that’s pretty cool.”
“And is that”—he pointed to my shirt—“a photo of Thomas Sell-Lack on your shirt?”
“Um, yeah. You heard of him?”
“Who hasn’t?”
I chuckled. “I can name a few.”
“They must have lived under a rock. Thomas Sell-Lack is a great influencer in history. A true icon and influencer.”
“I’ll give you that,” I said. “Was he”—I pointed to the shirt—“mentioned in the logs?”
Peter nodded.
“Mine, too. I never put it together,” Randy said.
“Odd. I haven’t written about him. I will now.”
“Maybe the events he influenced didn’t occur,” Peter suggested.
“I’m pretty sure they did,” I answered. “My oversight.”
“Please tell me,” Peter said. “What can I do for you, Logan?”
“Sonny,” I corrected. “Call me Sonny. Everyone does. We came over to meet you and to check on you. To see if there’s anything we can do to help you in your quest.”
“That’s nice. You can save us all a lot of trouble if you just tell me who the Sandman is.”
Randy asked, “So you can take him out?”
Peter nodded. “If we stop the Sandman, we stop it all. The closer the Sleepers get to him, the smarter they are. They feed from him. And that’s now, that’s before he’s even the Sandman.”
I tried to appear clueless. But I got what he was saying, it made sense what he said. Calvin and Marissa Sleeper, they were different. Was the reason for that because they were closer to Michael?
“Cut the head off the snake,” I said. “They revert to being dumb.”
“And they die off.”
Randy shook his head. “You really think the Sandman caused their evolution? You think maybe the human instinct just emerged?”
“We believe it was his leading,” Peter said. “If you don’t believe me, look at the Sleepers near here and compare then to the ones across the Great Divide. They only make it over the Divide because they go around it. Around it because they are led, otherwise they’d stay over there.”
“See, we’re on the same mission,” I told him. “We both want the Sandman out of commission, but we’re hoping to cure him and stop him from turning into the Sandman. I mean once we figure out who it is.”
“Logan, I mean, Sonny, come on. You know who it is.”
“Not for sure, because if I did,” —I lifted a finger—“wouldn’t have I put that in the logs?”
“He’s got a point,” Randy said. “He never says.”
“I never say, because I don’t think we ever find out.”
“You won’t cure him or her,” said Peter.
“We have Javier on it,” I told him. “He wasn’t around in the log phase. He is brilliant. We saved him. He’s a DNA expert. If anyone can do it, he can.”
“Actually he was in the early chapters,” Peter said. “And for as brilliant as he is, he was unable to do what we did in the future. No doubt he laid the ground work.”
“What was that?” I asked.
In giving his reply, Peter gave me food for thought, real food for thought.
“In the future,” Peter said, “we cure the Sleeper virus. And by extracting the gene from the DNA that causes it. Unfortunately it is a little too late to secure a Sleeper free future. In order for Javier to help the Sandman, he has to extract the gene that causes it to create the therapy or cure to give to the Sandman. Unfortunately, that gene is not identified until the future, long after Sandman has already caused his damage.”
So in the future they would know what caused the susceptibility to the Sleeper virus.
Knowledge lay in the future.
Fortunately for us, time had a way of being manipulated.
If we could get that information for Javier, we could jump start it all and it wouldn’t be too late for a Sleeper-free future.
I just needed to figure out the best way to make that happen.
FOURTEEN
ALEX
What the hell was he thinking? That was my first thought when we radioed a check in with Beck just about forty miles from our destination.
Then after some fancy dancing around words, I got the message that it was alright because Sonny didn’t know he was the Sandman, or rather Javier believed he was and that was enough for me.
If Sonny didn’t know, then it wasn’t in the Doctrines and Peter wouldn’t know either. That was my first concern, that Sonny would cross the bay, that Peter guy would see him, say, “Thank God, the Sandman” and take him out. Then again, it also crossed my mind that maybe Sonny knew and was playing dumb.
Man, that was a lot of thoughts in that couple of seconds.
Beck just felt the need to let me know. Maybe there was more he wanted to tell me, but didn’t want Danny or Miles to hear. Who knew?
It was a pretty strange conversation.
“Beck, just checking in,” I told him. “We’re about forty mil
es out, stopped for a piss. When we get there, we’ll scope it and should be home by dark.”
“Sounds good, get back to me and report what you see, if you can.”
“Roger that.”
“Hey, Alex, when you get back stop in and see me. So we can talk.”
“What the hell did Sonny do?” I asked. I figured it had to be Sonny because if something was wrong with Mera or one of the kids he would have said so.
“No, I…. Sonny went across the bay.”
“Well ain’t that just bringing the ants to a picnic,” I said.
Danny laughed. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Yeah,” Miles repeated. “What does that mean?”
“He’s not bringing ants to a picnic, Alex,” Beck said. “You have to have ants to do that.”
I got the “ah” moment, Sonny wasn’t bringing ants, meaning Sonny didn’t know. I forgot about that.
Then Miles reached out and stopped me from pressing the microphone and he whispered. “I think Beck is having a Sonny moment. I think he took you literally when I think you were trying to make a metaphor.”
I just stared at him with a titled head. “First, why are you whispering?” I asked. “Second, it was a metaphor, a bad one.”
“For?” Miles asked.
“I don’t know now. I forgot.”
“I know,” Danny said. “Ants to a picnic. He didn’t take Michael.”
“Why would Michael be the ants?” Miles asked. “You guys said this Peter guy came from the future to pull a ‘Kill Hitler as a baby’ thing.”
“What?” I asked. “What does Hitler have to do with this?”
Danny replied, “Kill Hitler as a baby, stop the Holocaust. Kill Sandman before he turns into Sandman, stop the Sleeper Wars.”
Miles nodded. “So, why would bringing Michael be like bringing ants to a picnic?”
“God damn metaphors,” I cursed. “I never said that, Danny did.”
“You started it,” Miles said then looked at Danny. “Danny?”
“Oh, yeah, my mom said this dude has a thing against religious people. Something they don’t have in the future and they blame the original Sleeper thing on religion, you know, God’s end.”
Man, I thought, he didn’t get that lie straight off the tip of his tongue from his mother.
“What the heck is wrong with him?” Miles asked. “Probably Sonny put something in the Doctrines.”
“Which is why,” I said, “I didn’t think Sonny should go. My ants to a picnic was that cross tattoo Sonny has.”
“Never saw it,” Miles said.
“It’s hidden.” I winked.
“You guys confuse me,” Miles said.
The radio hissed.
“Thank God,” I threw out my hands.
“Thank God I’m confused?” Miles asked.
“No.” I shook my head. “Thank God. Because I forgot about…”
“Are you guys still there?” Beck asked.
“Beck.” I pointed to the radio. “Him.” I lifted it to my mouth. “Still here. Sorry. We’re gonna get moving again. I’ll be in touch. Out.” I hooked the radio to my belt. “Let’s go.”
I was so glad to be out of that conversation and for the fact that once back in the truck, Danny spun the talk elsewhere.
When I first saw the radar, the Sleepers really did form what looked like the shape of a cloud. Never would I think that that same shape on the radar would be the shape I stared down to from the overlook edge.
Like a dialogue bubble in some comic strip.
Click.
The sound was familiar, but I couldn’t place it, until I heard it again.
Click.
On the second time, I knew exactly what it was and I turned my head to the right to see Danny holding up a phone.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Taking pictures,” Danny replied. “Beck wanted pictures.”
“That makes sense.”
“Yeah, Sonny said he’ll just connect it to the computer and enlarge.”
“Where did you get the phone? Was it yours before?”
“No. No. Sonny found this on base. Actually, it was the only one of twenty that he was able to get to charge.”
I pointed at the phone. “Well that was like the super battery phone in the day.”
“Tell me about it. Yeah, this one belonged to a chick with the same name as you. Alex. Cute.” I watched as his fingers swiped through the phone. “Took a lot of selfies and a picture of some baby sleeping. Kinda creepy taking a picture of a sleeping kid.”
“Danny….”
“She texted a lot.” Danny chuckled.
“Why are you invading that girl’s stuff?”
“I’m nosey? Plus, it keeps her alive, if she’s dead,” Danny said.
“What the hell?”
Danny shrugged. “I hope she didn’t die. I think she had a kid.”
“Man.” I shook my head, looking out to the Sleepers. “You know what this reminds me of? Ever see the movie Ten Commandments? When Moses was leading all those people?”
“In a sense,” Miles said, “isn’t Sandman?”
“Sandman is not Moses. And…” I laughed because I remembered something Mera said. “You know Mera thinks Beck reminds her of Charlton Heston.”
Miles bobbed his head from side to side. “I can see it.”
“Me, too,” Danny said.
“Heston? Charlton Heston. Are we thinking of the same actor?”
“It’s all in the attitude, man,” Danny said.
“Unreal.” I lifted the radio. “Beck, come in.”
“I’m here.”
“So are we,” I told him. “Looks like we guessed. A big ol’ mass of them. Probably closer to a thousand.”
“Are they spread out?” Beck asked.
“A little, but mostly they’re like the sardine version of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea in Ten Commandments. Danny is taking pictures.”
“Good. That will help me devise a plan,” Beck said.
“Hey, Beck, did Mera ever tell you that you remind her of Charlton Heston?”
“Yeah, Mera flatters me.”
I lowered the radio and looked at Danny and Miles. “Did he just say Mera flatters him? What the hell kind of talk is that?”
“Alex, you there?” Beck asked.
“Yep,” I replied. “Just stuck on how Mera flatters you. We’re gonna take a few more pictures and head on back.”
“Stop in and see me, okay?” Beck said.
“Roger that. See you soon, out.” I hooked the radio on my belt.
The mass of Sleepers was huge. Of course, Beck had been doing the Beckoning so it could be nothing surprising to him. To me, taking them all out with ease looked like an impossibility. Beck sounded confident that he would devise a plan, I just hoped we were all capable of carrying it out, because that mass of Sleepers…was too close.
FIFTEEN
MERA
The world as I had known it for most of my life was gone. Yet, there I was still doing the same thing. Cleaning, cooking, changing diapers, stepping on Legos. Honestly, I never thought after I lost Jeremy that I would want to live. Losing him, Daniel and eventually Jessie should have done me in.
I guess I was stronger than I knew. Plus it helped I had so many depending on me, even if it was to make sure they had a clean environment and a full belly.
When Michael showed up right after Sonny, to visit and to make sure I wasn’t overwhelmed—I guess he was bored—it gave me an idea.
I was going to make the wing of the hotel even more home than I had already. I also needed to make some changes.
The boys were down for a nap and so was Hope. While the others were in sc
hool, I compiled a list while Michael was in my bedroom executing what I thought was a great idea.
I heard a thump and made my way to the last door, my room. “You okay?” I asked, peeking inside.
“Yeah. Yeah. Almost done,” Michael replied, sitting on the floor of a dismantled bed. I felt bad for Michael. He really had no one but us close to him in his life. And he kept most at a distance since finding out from Ed that he was possibly the Sandman. But he was diligent about wearing those headphones to keep any signal from being sent out.
I hope Javier could cure him, I really did. We all did. Those of us who knew.
“You need help?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No I’m good. What are you working on.”
“A list of things I think the kids need. I’m gonna see if Sonny can get them.”
“He’s the one to ask. Him or Danny.”
“True.”
“Michael, do you think this is a good idea?” I asked.
“I think if you truly want to present a united family, yes. I know it’s old fashioned of me, but I do think you need something a little more concrete. That is completely up to you. I’ll be happy to do the honors…for real this time.”
“Thank you.” I turned when I heard the north fire escape door. That was our entrance. The Stiltons used the other stairwell at the opposite end. The main hall was divided by a makeshift wall.
“Is that him?”
I peeked out. “No. It’s Sonny. I’ll be back.” I hurried to catch Sonny before he went into his room, but I wasn’t fast enough. When I got there, the door was open and Sonny was changing his shirt.
I was a little shocked. I’d seen Sonny half dressed many times, but never noticed lately how muscular he had gotten.
“Whoa, Sonny, you’re getting ripped,” I said.
“Yeah, I really think that scooter is working muscles on me. I can feel it when I ride, I get sore.”
“That’s crazy.”
He finished with his shirt. “What’s up?”
“How did it go?”
“Good. The guy has a list of resources. Gonna send Renee with him to the peanut farm. Have some peanut butter finally.”
Sleepers | Book 8 Page 6