10

by James Phelan

  This one’s for Ma — JP.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Previously

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Copyright

  PREVIOUSLY

  Sam makes a daring escape from the traitorous German Guardians in Italy. Realising that Xavier is the next of the last 13, Sam and Xavier fly to Berlin to follow Xavier’s last 13 dream.

  At the archives in Berlin, they find a rubbing of the missing half of Ramses’ Dream Stele. Pursued once more by the German Guardians, they flee with Xavier’s father, Dr Dark, who reveals that he is a member of the Dreamer Council.

  Eva is at the Academy, working alongside Jedi to unravel the mysteries of the da Vinci journal. They discover a machine called the Bakhu. She dreams of the camp fire out on the mountains and goes to investigate. Caught in an avalanche, Eva survives thanks only to an unknown rescuer.

  Sam, Xavier and Dr Dark take refuge at the home of Dr Dark’s associate, Hans. That night, the boys share a nightmare about the next Gear piece. But the next morning, Hans takes them prisoner, seeking the power of the Dream Gate for himself.

  After setting fire to Hans’ mansion as they escape, Sam, Xavier and Dr Dark return to city to find the Gear piece inside the Berlin Zoo. Dr Dark leads Hans’ men away while Sam and Xavier explore the hidden tunnels under the zoo.

  Meanwhile Alex is now working with the Enterprise IT team, alongside his mother, Phoebe. He sneaks aboard Stella’s mission to Germany, determined to be involved in the race. He dreams of the zoo and realises that’s where Sam is headed.

  Sam and Xavier discover the WWII airplane factory from Xavier’s nightmare. Xavier leads them to the Gear piece just as both Stella’s rogue Agents and Hans’ men arrive, setting off a firefight. The boys escape via an ejector seat but Solaris is waiting for Sam. He struggles to fight back as Solaris looms over him …

  01

  SAM

  This is it. No more outrunning my nightmares.

  Sam forced his eyes open, willing himself to face his enemy. Solaris’ blackness filled his vision.

  ‘You lose,’ Solaris growled, his arms stretching out towards Sam.

  Sam grit his teeth and pulled his hands free from the ejector seat to defend himself, pointlessly, bravely. But then—

  ‘Nooooo!’ There was a blur of movement and suddenly daylight blinded Sam, and Solaris was gone.

  Sam stumbled free from the seat and crashed to the ground, struggling to see what was happening as a gush of hot blood burst out from under his hairline. His vision swam sideways and sticky blood trickled into his left eye … no, no, I have to get the Gear … Xavier … must get …

  And then he passed out.

  He blinked his eyes and came to a moment later. Blurry feet rushed towards him.

  He rolled onto his back. He tasted blood.

  A face filled the sky above him. Someone was close, looking down into his eyes. They looked familiar, those eyes.

  Alex?

  Then he focused on the mouth. The person was saying something but Sam couldn’t hear the words. He tried to talk but wasn’t sure if any sound came out. His head turned to the side, and he could see Xavier standing there, dripping wet and shivering. Sam tried to tell them to search for their backpacks.

  Who has the Gear?

  Sam tilted his head again, but he could not see Solaris.

  He must have it, that’s why he’s gone.

  Sam tried to sit up, but he couldn’t move.

  He saw that familiar face above him talking into a phone.

  In a moment of clarity, he knew for certain he was looking at Alex. He tried to smile, to say hello, but he still couldn’t talk.

  It’s Alex. Alex who was dead.

  02

  SAM’S NIGHTMARE

  The sound of my running footsteps echoes in the huge space. A vaulted ceiling above me reveals no clues. Everything is dark but for tiny night lights, illuminated exit signs and faint glows on the walls. I slow to a walk, listening. The fear of what may lurk in the gloom is suffocating. I stop.

  Be still and listen …

  Silence.

  I let out a breath, feel my heart rate settle. Whatever or whoever was chasing me is no longer there. Maybe they never were … I’d been running, but from what—from whom? I’m as unsure about that as I am of my surroundings.

  Where am I? Concentrate, Sam. Pay attention.

  I walk over to a nearby wall for a closer look. There is an enormous painting set squarely in the middle, smaller pictures hanging on either side, their lamps casting the soft glows I’d noticed. I stagger back from the imposing picture, its sheer size is astounding. It’s of a raft adrift at sea, bedraggled men clambering to remain afloat. Desperation and despair leap off the canvas and threaten to overwhelm me.

  ‘Gericault’s The Raft of the Medusa,’ a lilting voice says.

  I turn. A girl, about my age, stands beside me, studying the huge artwork.

  ‘A magnificent work,’ she says in a French accent. ‘But not what you came for.’

  I’m in France?

  ‘Do I know you?’ I ask.

  ‘Zara,’ she says. ‘My name is Zara.’

  ‘I’m Sam.’ I look around the empty gallery. ‘Where is everyone?’

  ‘Follow me,’ she says and walks away.

  We are standing in a restoration room. Zara shows me large glossy print-outs.

  ‘This package just arrived,’ Zara explains. ‘A long-lost da Vinci project, and now we’ve found it.’

  I look at the images.

  ‘I don’t see what’s important about these,’ I say. ‘I mean–important to me, what I’m looking for.’

  ‘And what are you looking for?’

  ‘Parts of da Vinci’s machine,’ I keep my voice calm and level.

  ‘He invented many machines.’ Zara is unflappable.

  ‘This one’s special,’ I insist.

  ‘Aren’t they all?’ she counters.

  ‘Well … this one is called the Bakhu machine. It’s a kind of mechanical map, which will reveal the location of somewhere special, a place hidden for a long time.’

  Now she starts to show some surprise.

  ‘You know of it?’ I say.

  ‘I’ve never heard of the “Bakhu” but it sounds like you’re talking about one of the supposed lost da Vinci navigational devices.’

  I nod. Don’t let it sound too crazy.

  ‘They’re nothing but da Vinci myth, never verified. A few crude sketches is all that’s ever been found.
’

  ‘The map is real.’

  ‘And where would such a “map” lead?’ she asks.

  ‘It leads to a treasure,’ I say. ‘A treasure beyond belief.’

  There is a noise outside. Talking, running—someone searching. I rush over to the door, peer out to the corridor. Shadowy figures rush by.

  ‘We should leave,’ I say, already looking for an exit. ‘Someone’s out there, in the gallery.’

  ‘Security, probably.’

  ‘No,’ I say. ‘Believe me, they’re not security, they’re not our friends at all.’

  ‘You sure about that?’

  I nod and say, ‘And I know they’re after me, and you.’

  ‘Who are they—’

  ‘We don’t have time, I’ll explain later, I promise.’

  There are voices just outside the door. I look around the room.

  Where can we go?

  Zara switches off the lights, takes my hand and leads me towards another door at the back of the room, tucked behind some shelves.

  ‘OK,’ she says as we move fast down a corridor, her voice now panicked. ‘Say I do dream, that I have seen something that might be part of a machine …’

  I must have missed something, but this is good. She believes what I’m saying.

  ‘Yes?’ I say.

  We weave down a passageway then into a larger hall.

  She stops at a door which is marked SORTIE DE SECOURS.

  Zara’s face is etched with fear when she says, ‘Let us say that the dream does not … it does not end well. Someone gets hurt.’

  ‘Who?’ I say. ‘You? Me?’

  ‘Both of us,’ she says. ‘I dreamed that there was a fire, here in the museum, and we couldn’t get out.’

  ‘Then let’s go–’ I push the bar which opens the fire-escape door.

  As we step out, I recoil in horror at the shimmering black figure that greets us, somehow smirking, despite the frozen mask.

  Solaris!

  We turn to run the other way. I’m pulling her arm, I know I must be hurting her but we have to get out of here. Her dream is about to come true, sooner than I had expected.

  Solaris laughs, a shattering, evil sound that pierces the air as we skid on the polished floor, desperately running.

  I’m always running.

  Rooms and artworks flash by but I don’t dare look back. Zara takes the lead, pulling me here and there, weaving through this maze-like place that she must know so well.

  I glimpse the night sky above us, kaleidoscoping through a pyramid of glass.

  We’ve almost made it out …

  Zara drags me towards the exit, it’s within reach when blackness shoots up on all sides. I’m spinning, turning, but it’s a circle of evil.

  Solaris is all around us. How can this be?

  Zara’s eyes are wide in terror and her mouth opens as if to scream. Before any noise comes out, there’s a bright flash from a jet of flames that illuminates the stars above us for the briefest of moments. I turn to Zara as our world–

  Explodes.

  03

  SAM

  Sam woke up panting for breath, the bedsheets twisted around his body. The warm sunlight streamed through the window and spilled over his face. He lay still, calming himself.

  It’s just another nightmare … I can do this. I even got a name this time. Zara.

  Squinting against the light, he could see out the window to the Swiss Alps, stretching away to the horizon. It was early morning at the Academy. Sam sighed.

  In a seat in a dark corner of the room was a sleeping figure. In the shadows, Sam couldn’t make out who it was. When he sat up to see, his head went spinning back to the pillow.

  Something wasn’t right.

  This … this isn’t my bedroom.

  ‘Ah, you’re awake,’ Lora said, entering the room. The Academy’s doctor followed her in. ‘How are you feeling?’

  I’m in the medical bay.

  ‘Not too bad,’ Sam said, ‘except for a cracking headache.’ The figure in the corner stirred. Eva.

  ‘Hey,’ Sam said to her as she walked over, rubbing the sleep from her face as she struggled to properly wake up.

  ‘Hey, you,’ Eva said. ‘You had us worried.’

  ‘Yeah, sorry about that,’ Sam said. ‘How’d I get here?’

  ‘You spent a night at a hospital in Berlin, then we airlifted you back here,’ Lora said. ‘You’ve been out of it for about forty-eight hours.’

  ‘Berlin?’

  ‘You don’t remember?’

  Sam strained to recall.

  ‘What do you last remember?’ the doctor asked carefully.

  ‘I remember … Solaris?’ Sam said. ‘I was … I was at the zoo, in Berlin. I was falling, or flying, coming at him from above, I was gliding down—and then …’

  ‘Then?’

  ‘I hit the ground, hard. I remember seeing fire and then I blacked out … it feels like it was all a dream.’

  ‘Well, it definitely happened,’ Lora said. ‘You were caught up in a shoot-out in the underground factory there and made a rather spectacular escape via an ejection seat.’

  ‘That, I remember!’ Sam said, sitting up and staying up this time. ‘I was with Xavier—is he OK?’

  ‘Yes, he’s fine, just a bit shaken up. He’ll be joining us at the Academy soon. We thought he could do with spending a bit longer recuperating with his father first.’

  Sam nodded. He needs some time with his dad.

  ‘And the Gear?’ he asked.

  Lora shook her head. ‘Solaris has it.’

  ‘Damn …’ Sam’s vision wobbled again and he leaned back heavily in the bed.

  ‘Just sit still a moment,’ the doctor said, checking Sam’s vital signs. ‘You suffered a concussion and the lump on your head will be there for a while. Four stitches. Might I suggest that you refrain from using World War II ejection seats in future?’

  Sam nodded again but felt absent as a niggling memory remained just out of reach.

  ‘Sam?’ Eva said, standing close to him and recognising his confusion. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Alex!’ Sam said, the memory of his face flooding back. ‘I saw Alex there, at the zoo!’ Sam said, growing more and more lucid with every second that he was awake. ‘I saw Alex, I know it. He’s alive!’

  ‘It’s OK, Sam,’ Lora said, sitting on the edge of his bed. ‘Jedi had online photographic searches running following the plane wreck in New York and he found a match for Alex a few days ago in Berlin. It looks as though he was there with the Enterprise. We don’t know why they would have taken him along on a mission like that though.’

  ‘That’s right, the Enterprise were there too,’ Sam said. ‘They were after us—after the Gear!’

  ‘Are you saying that Alex is working for the Enterprise?’ Eva said. ‘Why would he do that?’

  ‘Well, if Alex has been with the Enterprise since the … accident in New York,’ Lora’s voice still wavered at the mention of the jet explosion that had killed her boyfriend, Sebastian.

  ‘If Alex is still alive,’ Eva said, ‘maybe Sebastian and Tobias are too?’

  Sam could see that the thought was playing on Lora’s mind. She went to the window and looked outside, quiet as Eva began to tell Sam how she’d been stuck out in the mountains outside the Academy and how an avalanche had nearly swept her away.

  ‘I think Tobias carried me back here,’ Eva said. ‘At first I thought it was just a dream, but maybe I really did see him …’

  ‘Maybe,’ Lora admitted. ‘The day after you were brought back following your hike out there, I sent a team out to the mountain. They didn’t find anyone, but they did find this.’ Lora pulled a dreamcatcher charm and placed it on the table in front of Sam.

  ‘It belonged to Tobias,’ Lora said.

  ‘Then it is him!’ Eva said.

  ‘Eva, if it is Tobias, which it may or may not be, he’s there for a reason. And unless he—or whoever it is—comes to us, we
won’t know. It’s impossible to find someone out there if they don’t want to be found.’

  ‘Wow, this is getting bizarre.’ Sam looked to Eva and Lora, both nervous and tense. ‘In other news,’ he said, taking the IV line out of his arm and getting up, as the doctor began muttering and trying to get him back into the bed. ‘I know where I have to go.’

  ‘Oh?’ Lora said. Both she and Eva were immediately intrigued and alert.

  Sam smiled. ‘I’ve had my next dream.’

  04

  ALEX

  ‘You can’t do that again,’ Phoebe said to Alex. They were sitting on a plaza bench in downtown San Jose, local people out enjoying a weekend street fair mingling around them.

  ‘Do what?’ Alex said, already knowing the answer. ‘Eat another bag of these delicious jam doughnuts?’

  ‘Stowing away,’ his mother said with a stern tone. ‘Sneaking along on a mission like that. You could have gotten yourself, and others, hurt or even killed. Did you think it’d be easier to ask for forgiveness after the fact than to get permission to go out there?’

  ‘Sorry, Mum. But I can take care of myself, you know,’ Alex said. ‘Besides, Sam’s out there “in the field”,’ Alex made sarcastic speech marks in the air with his hands, ‘and everyone seems to trust him to know what he’s doing.’

  ‘I’m sure the Academy would prefer to avoid that if they could,’ Phoebe said.

  ‘But I don’t get it,’ Alex said, licking sugar from his fingers and scrunching up the empty paper bag. ‘Sam’s out there risking his neck for us, and he needs all the help he can get. Meanwhile, I’m stuck here, hanging out with the world’s greatest concentration of geeks.’

  ‘The Enterprise is doing everything it can to—’

  ‘I think the Enterprise has you brainwashed, Mum,’ he said. ‘Do you even know what’s going on out there? Really? Sam’s up against Solaris, with all kinds of people chasing him, shooting at him, and we’re here, sitting around, talking, watching, waiting.’