Borderlands (The Dreams of Reality Book 5)

by Gareth Otton

  Leon huffed out a laugh and waved off her comment. “That guy wouldn’t know how to enjoy himself in a fun factory,” he said.

  It was Lizzie’s turn to frown.

  “He’s got a lot on his plate. You’ve only known him since Jen was taken and after the world started beating him down. Don’t judge him too harshly.”

  Leon slipped his feet off the desk and sat up straight, holding his hands up in surrender.

  “Sorry, I meant nothing by it. You’re right, I’ve just seen him at a rough time. It wouldn’t hurt to smile once in a while though.”

  Lizzie didn’t reply, still not liking the direction of the conversation. Seeing this, Leon changed the topic and turned his attention to Miles.

  “So, we all set up?”

  Miles was already at another editing desk and had fired up the computer. The ultra wide monitor that was normally filled with clips from her show was now divided into six windows, each showing a different view of the tower.

  “I’d say so,” Miles answered, sounding smug. “Video, audio, the whole shebang.” He demonstrated by selecting a window and change the viewing angle. “Anything happens outside that tower, we’ll be the first to know. You can even see them on your phone with the app I gave you.”

  “The only thing is that nothing interesting is going to happen outside the tower,” Lizzie said. Seeing Miles’ expression flicker, she added, “Not that this isn’t amazing. It will definitely come in handy. I’m just saying we could do with getting cameras inside... maybe even in the penthouse.”

  “Well considering the last guy who entered that penthouse at the wrong time got his throat cut and you stabbed, there’s no chance you’re going anywhere near that place,” Miles stated, leaving no room for argument. Lizzie didn’t like being told what to do, but seeing his stubborn expression, she turned to Leon instead.

  “You got any ideas of how we could get a camera inside. Maybe one of your friends might be willing to plant one for us.”

  “And turn against the Eidolon Council?” Leon scoffed. “Not happening. You need to understand how we were raised. They were the gods of our own personal religion and we were taught never to question them. There are horror stories of people who did.”

  “But you changed,” Lizzie pointed out.

  “They didn’t give me a choice. It was either turn on them or turn on my cousin. If I hadn’t spent so much time getting to know her, I wouldn’t have said a thing out of fear of what they would do to me or yia-yia.”

  “So there’s no one who can help?”

  “Not that I can think of. Sorry.”

  Lizzie was frustrated, but she shook her head and waved off his apology. “Forget about it, we’ll figure something out.”

  “If that’s all for tonight, I’m going to get some rest. It is Christmas Eve after all,” Leon said. “You guys got any plans this year?”

  “We’re going to my parents for dinner,” Lizzie answered. “You?”

  “I’ll spend the day with yia-yia, and maybe try to convince Stella to take a break for five minutes. I’m not holding my breath though, especially after what happened with Tad’s house.”

  “That’s a good point. I need to find out if there’s any more news about that,” Lizzie said. She suddenly felt guilty for not covering it more. The attack on Tad’s house and the others across the country were something she should be looking into herself, not palming off to her employees. She was too focused on this eidolon story for her own good.

  But it was hard not to be. She had lucked into the story of the Merging by being in the right place at the right time, but if she could break this story, then she could finally prove that she knew what she was doing as a journalist.

  Leon laughed at whatever he saw on her expression and climbed to his feet. “Whatever. Just don’t work too hard. By the way, even though it’s Christmas tomorrow, give me a ring if you’re going anywhere. I still don’t like the idea of you being alone when the eidolon are out there. I don’t mind coming over if you need me. Christmas is going to be a bit low key this year.”

  “Thanks, Leon, I will.”

  Leon grinned at her and said his goodbyes before he vanished with a pop, leaving her alone with a scowling Miles.

  “What is your problem?” she pressed, done with his moping. When he refused to answer, she said, “Nothing’s happening between me and Leon, nor will it ever happen. He’s just hanging around because Tad and Stella are being over protective.”

  “I know that, it’s just...” He struggled for the right words and a blush rose to his cheeks as he blurted, “But does he have to be that attractive. Surely there are some ugly old men who can watch your back just as well as he can.”

  Lizzie burst out laughing.

  “Idiot,” she said. “Like I said, nothing’s going to happen, so just don’t worry about it, okay. You just need to—”

  She was interrupted when Miles’ phone sounded off like a siren. It was just once, but it was bizarre because not only was the noise impossibly loud, but Miles’ phone was in silent mode.

  “What the hell was that?” Lizzie asked, but didn’t get her answer as Miles blanched and was fumbling through his pocket for his phone. “Miles?”

  “It’s an app I built for the DT,” he said as he activated his screen and started moving through his phone. “It’s designed to be used in emergen...cies...”

  His voice trailed off as his skin turned even paler.

  “Oh my god,” he gasped.

  “What is it?”

  “I need to get to the office. There’s been a nightmare... a really bad one.”

  “How bad?”

  “The kind of bad that has multiple civilian deaths and wiped out half of the new recruits to the tactical unit.”

  Lizzie gasped into her hand as her eyes went wide.

  “Oh my God, where?”

  Miles was about to answer, then clammed up as he realised who he was talking to. A pained expression crossed his face, and Lizzie knew she wouldn’t like whatever he would say next.

  “Come on, Liz. You know I can’t tell you things like that. I shouldn’t have said as much as I have.”

  “Tell me and I’ll give you a lift to the office.”

  “You’ll give me a lift anyway because you’re not heartless and you know I’m needed.”

  “Please, Miles. Just the name of the place and I won’t ask you for anything else.”

  Miles swore and looked away for a second while muttering something about how she would get him fired one day. Then he told her a name for somewhere she had never heard of before, but fully intended to find out about very soon.

  “Don’t go there,” he ordered, sounding as serious as he was when he said not to go to New Olympus. Seeing from her expression that she wouldn’t back down this time, he sighed in defeat. “At least call Leon to watch your back.”

  “Now you want Leon to come with me? Make up your mind.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe one of the nightmares is still there and can mess up that pretty boy face of his.” Seeing Lizzie’s scowl he said, “Sorry, bad joke. Can we please go? I need to get to the DTHQ and help with this.”

  “Yeah, of course. Jump,” she ordered as she took his hand. Once again, the world changed as the walls of the barn fell away to be replaced with the icy cold of the car park outside the DTHQ.

  “Thanks, Liz. Do me a favour, be careful.”

  “Always,” Lizzie agreed. She kissed him goodbye then watched as he rushed through the entrance and sprinted up the stairs towards that technical rat’s nest he called an office.

  Lizzie was about to go when she heard voices from around the side of the building that made her hesitate. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying at this distance, but she recognised one of them. The Prime Minister.

  Lizzie crept forward, then pressed flat against the wall as she approached the edge of the building. She didn’t dare poke her head around the corner lest she be spotted.

  “...as
sure as we can be. The tech guy here has installed body cams on all the tactical guys and though the footage was shaky and we haven’t viewed it all, we’re sure it was him.”

  Listening to him speak, Lizzie was confident this was the Prime Minister. She had spoken with him enough that she would recognise his voice anywhere. The other voice she didn’t know.

  “I can’t believe it. With the way this played out, I would have sworn it was actually a Children of ADaM attack. It feels too needlessly cruel to be militarily sanctioned. But I suppose if Kuruk was there then...”

  His words trailed off for a moment, which was good because Lizzie’s mind was reeling. The only Kuruk she knew was Kuruk Campbell, and the last she heard he had disappeared from FBI custody. If he was here causing trouble, then that was a huge story in itself. But what was that about military sanctioned actions? Was Kuruk working for someone? Had he been all along?

  “What is it?” the Prime Minister asked, seeing something about the person he was talking to that Lizzie was missing.

  “When I was training with Kuruk and his men, I got a good feel for the man. He’s not stable.”

  The Prime Minister laughed bitterly.

  “You needed to train with the man to find that out. You didn’t get any clues from his earlier actions or the fact that he burned down Tad’s house last night with everyone still inside?”

  Kuruk was behind that?

  Lizzie’s mind felt like it was about to explode as she realised just how much she had been missing while she was chasing eidolon across the globe.

  “Of course I knew that. I mean that he’s the kind of unstable that can’t be controlled, only directed. When the Americans scooped him up to form their dreamcatcher army, I don’t think they knew what they were unleashing. They may think they have him tamed, but he’s using them as much as they’re using him. I would guess he went rogue tonight. He probably didn’t like whatever they had planned.”

  “God, as if we don’t have enough on our plate with this war, now we have to worry about the Americans acting like terrorists. I know, you said it was Kuruk not them, but with the resources at his command they’re one and the same at the moment. Just when I thought this couldn’t get any worse.

  “I just came from a meeting where I got news the Russians are mobilising as well,” the Prime Minister said. “We both know they wouldn’t have done that unless they know something we don’t.”

  “I told you it was a distraction,” the other voice said. “They’re not going to move unless they are sure the American’s are coming for the Borderlands and want to stop that. These attacks aren’t wide scale enough to think it’s part of the American invasion plan, so they must have other intel. I’m telling you, as bad as these attacks have been, they’re just a distraction for something bigger.”

  The Prime Minister swore, which was good because Lizzie wanted to do just that right now herself. Whatever she was listening to was huge and terrifying to say the least. Bigger than the eidolon story, even.

  She wondered if Miles had known about this all along and hadn’t told her, but she brushed that thought aside. She knew there were things he couldn’t tell her and made her peace with that. He’d already told her more than he was supposed to. Something like this sounded like it had ‘Official Secrets Act’ stamped all over it and she knew he would get more than a slap on the wrist if he told her anything.

  “With the Russians mobilising, the rest won’t be far behind,” the unknown voice said. “This is the worst-case scenario I said would happen.”

  “I know, Ryan, don’t rub it in. We should have listened. I just didn’t think it would escalate as far as World War fucking Three so fast.” The prime minister sighed as Lizzie’s head almost exploded from that little bombshell. “Listen, I need you to do something for me. We need time. Stella’s guys are doing their best to get dreamcatchers spread through the army, but that will not be enough if things keep escalating like this.”

  “What do you want me to do?” the man the Prime Minister called Ryan asked.

  “At this point, you’ve spent more time around Kuruk than anyone. You’ve been trained to use those dreamcatchers as well as anyone in their army, and you know how he thinks. I want you to put all that to good use. I want you to find that oversized prick, and I want you to kill him.”

  There was a long moment of silence before Ryan answered.

  “Do you have the authority to order that?”

  “Of course not. Which is why this is a personal request. Do I need to go through legal channels because that will take forever and time is something we don’t have.”

  Again there was a long silence before Ryan said, “Consider it done.”

  “Thank you. I better go. There’s going to be a shit show when this hits the news and I’m going to have a lot of questions to answer. Keep me up to date, and if you need anything, let me know.”

  The man answered in the affirmative, then Lizzie heard the telltale pop of someone dreamwalking away. That was followed by the sound of footsteps headed her way, and she knew that this was her cue to leave as well.

  Thinking of her barn again, she activated her tattoo. Once again the world shifted, but not before she caught sight of the surprised face of a tall, broad shouldered man with a dark beard.

  Arriving back in her studio, she found her way to the nearest chair and sank into it, letting out an explosive sigh as she struggled to get her mind around everything she just heard.

  Kuruk Campbell active again.

  America behind the attacks.

  The Prime Minister ordering an assassination.

  World War Three.

  She felt like her entire world was collapsing. The Prime Minister mentioned that Stella knew about this, as the Dream Team were giving dreamcatchers to the army. Lizzie couldn’t see Stella knowing without Tad knowing as well, and she found herself looking back on a lot of things in a new light.

  “This is huge,” she whispered to herself as she finally got her head around it.

  She looked around her studio that had changed so much over the last year. Where once she was alone in a freezing barn, now it was a fully fledged studio filled with editor desks, three unique sets for filming on, and tens of thousands of pounds of equipment. All that had come from Lizzie being the first to break the story of the Merging.

  Now she didn’t just have the eidolon to take her business to a whole new level, she had a war to cover as well.

  I need more people, she thought, because this was bigger than just her and her small team.

  She suddenly doubted she’d make it to her mum’s for dinner tomorrow. This was an enormous opportunity, and she refused to waste it.

  It’s more than an opportunity, it’s a responsibility.

  The thought came unbidden as she realised how the British public were being kept in the dark. If there was ever something they all needed to know about, it was this.

  While she respected Tad and Stella for what they did, this was always going to be the fundamental difference between them. They wanted to handle everything from the shadows, but Lizzie believed that people had a right to know about the things that would affect their lives.

  Lizzie dropped her head in her hands as she prepared for the fallout of what was coming when she went down this path. For the first time she considered hesitating on a story as she personally had so much to lose here. Stella would turn on her, the Prime Minister would never come on her show again, and she might even lose Leon’s help with the eidolon. But what gave her pause was the thought of losing Tad’s friendship. Despite starting out as her ticket to a brighter future, he had become a genuine friend, and she hated the idea of letting him down.

  And then, of course, there was Miles. Though, she was less worried about that because she was confident that if it came down to it, Miles would choose her over his job.

  Do you want to put him in that position though?

  She forced herself to ignore the thought because she knew herself and knew s
he couldn’t ignore this. If there was war coming, people had a right to know.

  Decision made, Lizzie climbed to her feet and suddenly felt like she was buzzing with energy. She had a job to do, and the only thing standing in her way was where to start. When she finally figured that out, she rushed to one of the cameras that were always on charge and ready to go. Then she mentally reached for her tattoo, and as Tad called it, she changed the channel.

  12

  Saturday, 24th December 2016

  22:15

  Tad stepped out of Dream into the organised chaos of the emergency room at Cardiff Hospital. Beyond the usual sight of patients sitting in the waiting area hoping to be seen as soon as possible, there were men and women who looked like they had just stepped out of a war zone. Some still wore their wounds out in the open, others had been temporarily treated to stop them getting worse while the nurses and doctors dealt with the most critical patients.

  This alone was enough to sober Tad up to the harsh realities of this war, but he had seen much worse tonight. He dreaded to think how bad this could get before it was over.

  “Nurse,” Tad shouted as he spotted a woman rushing around behind the reception desk. The poor woman had dark circles around her eyes, her greying hair was out of place, and there was a sheen of sweat glistening atop the dark tone of her skin. She jumped at his shout and looked up with murder in her eyes, but her words died upon seeing Tad and the man he was holding in his arms.

  “Oh, my... I’ll... I’ll get a doctor.”

  She rushed back the way she had come, leaving Tad standing in a room of people who were staring at the man who jumped the queue. No one dared protest, not when they saw the old man cradled in Tad’s arms.

  He had been one of the first attacked by the nightmare in the church and it was a miracle he was still alive. Half of his face had been torn away by the claws of the creatures, his clothes were shredded and saturated with blood, and it was all Tad could do to keep the man’s intestines from spilling out.