10

by James Phelan

  The shopfront across the road was full of designer suits.

  ‘Nice,’ Zara said, following his gaze. ‘Expensive, but worth every Euro.’

  ‘Yeah …’

  Zara gasped and stepped back. Sam had changed his Stealth Suit to replicate the sleek black suit in the centre of the display.

  ‘Pas possible! That’s—that’s impossible!’

  ‘For Dreamers like me, like us,’ Sam said with a smile, ‘a lot more than you think is possible.’

  Zara felt the sleeve of his suit jacket and said in wonder, ‘If I know how to do that, my wardrobe has just become a whole lot more affordable—and bigger!’ She grinned.

  ‘It’s a type of memory fabric,’ Sam said. He changed his Stealth Suit back to his usual clothes. Then he changed to another suit in the window, a grey one. It reminded him too much of the Enterprise Agents, so he switched back to casual, but with a raincoat this time. He took off the tourist cap and flicked the hood up over his head.

  ‘Tomorrow,’ Sam said. ‘I’ll meet you at the Louvre?’

  ‘Five—five o’clock …’ Zara managed to say. ‘Meet me in the Denon Wing, at five.’

  ‘Any chance we can meet earlier?’ Sam asked.

  Zara shook her head. ‘Non. I have to work, it cannot be missed.’

  Maybe there are some things that just can’t be changed, no matter how much you see into the future.

  ‘OK, well, can you please do one thing for me?’ Sam said carefully. ‘Don’t tell your parents about all of this until after then. I want you to be sure, to really believe, then we can tell them together and I can answer any questions they may have.’

  Zara hesitated and nodded. ‘Anyway, I can’t imagine what they would say about a stranger who says I have to help save the world!’ she laughed.

  Oh, I think you might find they’d believe you, Zara.

  Sam stretched out his hand and she took it gingerly in hers. He gave her the tourist cap, and said, ‘Something to remember me by.’

  18

  Sam took several wrong turns on his way back to the hotel and got back to his room with only five minutes to spare. He was drying his face and hair with a towel when there was a knock at his door. Through the peephole he could see the Professor standing there.

  ‘Hey,’ Sam said, holding the door open.

  ‘I brought you a treat,’ the Professor said as he entered the room.

  Sam opened the paper bag—a couple of almond cakes.

  Does he know where I was just now? Is he messing with me?

  Sam marvelled at the fact that he still knew so little about the Professor, and his abilities.

  ‘Thanks,’ Sam said. ‘How’d your meeting go?’

  ‘Good,’ the Professor replied, looking at the lights of Paris outside the darkening window. The top of the Eiffel Tower was visible, a blinking beacon against the night sky. ‘We’re both going before the full Council at lunchtime tomorrow.’

  ‘Both of us?’

  ‘They’re eager to meet you, to hear what you have to say,’ the Professor replied. He sank heavily into a chair. The day had clearly taken its toll.

  ‘You seem worried,’ Sam said.

  ‘When I met with the Leadership of the Council, I heard some disturbing news.’

  Sam waited for him to go on.

  ‘Hans has control of the German Guardians, we knew that much already,’ the Professor said. ‘And now there’s the possibility of serious division within the Enterprise.’

  ‘Division?’ Sam asked. ‘You mean more than Stella?’

  ‘Yes. Stella and her Agents, attacking you in Berlin, we’re not sure if the Director had any knowledge of it,’ the Professor said. ‘It’s incomprehensible for them to use deadly force like that.’

  ‘As incomprehensible as the German Guardians turning?’

  The Professor let out a deep sigh. ‘Sam, the Council Leadership is as confused as I am. The Enterprise is very powerful, with their cutting-edge technology and the huge number of Agents at their disposal, and those kinds of resources in the wrong hands … well, we are now waging a war on three fronts.’

  ‘Hans, Stella … and Solaris,’ Sam said. There was no forgetting him, that lone figure who kept to the shadows, driven to be the most powerful figure on Earth in his quest for the Dream Gate.

  ‘That’s right. Solaris we will work further on dealing with,’ the Professor said. ‘It’s the unknown extent of this Enterprise element that worries me most today. They know so much about us. Too much.’

  ‘I thought you knew this Director guy, Jack—can’t you talk to him?’ Sam asked. ‘Weren’t you friends before?’

  ‘I wouldn’t use the term “friends”, but yes, we knew each other. And still do,’ the Professor said. He turned to Sam with solemn eyes. ‘I have spoken to him, tried to convince him that we should be working together against our common enemies.’ He sighed. ‘But Jack is very determined to do things his way. I cannot make him see that the last 13 is something we share. Something we need to protect.’

  Sam nodded. ‘Maybe we meet with Zara first tomorrow? Make sure she’s safe?’ he asked.

  ‘Afterwards,’ the Professor said, shaking off his doldrums. ‘We’ll make contact with her after our meeting at the Council. Thankfully her Agent parents will look out for her, and they may well be better informed about the movements of rogue Enterprise Agents than we are.’

  ‘Which means they only have Hans and Solaris to worry about,’ Sam said with a grimace.

  ‘The good news is that only we know that she’s the next Dreamer,’ the Professor said. ‘For now, she’s just another Parisian teenager, albeit part of the Enterprise’s Dreamer program. But there’s dozens of them in the country, hundreds across the globe. So as long as no-one else knows her true value in this race, she’s safe.’

  Sam suddenly felt sick, worrying that by going to see Zara already he might have led anyone following him to her.

  ‘We have friends in the Council who will support us, and our plans,’ the Professor was saying. ‘But it won’t be simple. There are many differing views, especially with all the attention we’re getting, what with the events in New York, Cairo, Rome and now Berlin …’

  ‘Yeah, I know,’ Sam said, feeling the guilt about visiting Zara worsen. He fretted about the suspicion of the Louvre guards and police. ‘I’ve become a bit of a celebrity for all the wrong reasons.’

  The Professor seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. ‘I know it’s hard, but try to get a good rest tonight, because no matter what your dreams may bring, you’re going to need it for what lies ahead.’

  19

  ALEX

  ‘Round two?’

  Alex was waiting in a hallway for his mother to finish a meeting and turned to see Shiva grinning at him.

  ‘Didn’t I say tomorrow?’ Alex replied. ‘And man, my legs are killing me from earlier!’

  ‘Ha, well, just you wait until tomorrow—you’ll hardly be able to walk.’

  ‘It’ll be a fair fight then,’ Alex said grinning.

  ‘You waiting for Phoebe?’ Shiva said.

  ‘Yep,’ Alex replied, ‘just going to grab some dinner together. You wanna come?’

  ‘Thanks Alex, but Matrix has us working ‘round the clock now, twelve-hour shifts. I’m on my way back there.’

  ‘Bit of a slavedriver, our boss,’ Alex laughed. ‘And what gives with the super-secret mission stuff?’

  ‘I’ll see if I can get you transferred onto this new project, amigo,’ Shiva said. ‘Then you’ll know hard work.’ He winked. ‘I’d get booted out if I let you in even for a peek—we’ve gone hyper-max with the security.’

  ‘Seems everything around here’s restricted,’ Alex said.

  ‘I guess they have their security protocols for good reasons,’ Shiva said.

  ‘Yeah, I’m sure,’ Alex said. ‘Look, Shiva, you wouldn’t know where Sam is, would you?’

  ‘Why would I know that?’

  ‘Surel
y part of what you guys do is monitor everything that’s going on in this race for the Dream Gate.’

  Shiva looked around like he didn’t want to be overhead.

  ‘You didn’t hear this from me,’ Shiva said.

  ‘I swear.’

  ‘Paris,’ Shiva said, walking away. ‘Your friend’s in Paris …’

  When Phoebe ducked out to tell Alex her meeting was running late, he began to wander the corridors, looking for something to occupy his time. He found himself outside the Agent training division.

  Well, if I’m not allowed to play with the big boys in the computer lab, I might as well see what everyone else is doing.

  In the first room, a handful of Agents were practising at a pistol range with what looked like handguns, only they shot paint projectiles. Each time they hit the human silhouette down the range, a bright blue splotch of paint exploded.

  Alex walked past, smiling at the Agents and nodding appreciatively at their target skills. ‘Keep up the good work!’ he said, their faces stony in return.

  With most Agents at dinner, the ops room was empty as Alex slipped quietly in. He ambled innocently over to a computer and casually clicked through the drives. A folder marked ‘SW’ caught his eye.

  What you got in there, Stella?

  But when Alex tried to open it, an encryption lock appeared on the screen.

  Oh, so you wanna play?

  Alex’s fingers flew across the keyboard as he tried to unlock the security on the file. Over and over ‘access denied’ flashed on the screen.

  ‘Argh! Come on, Alex, don’t let her beat you,’ he muttered to himself. He looked across the silent room, there really was no-one around. The perfect time for some spying.

  ‘OK, what else can I try?’ he said to himself.

  Alex was absorbed by the challenge, minutes ticking by as he leaned closer and closer to the screen, until—

  ‘Gotcha!’ he punched the air as ‘access granted’ pinged in front of him.

  Alex scrolled through the files, opening some to find roster lists and reports on previous missions. One file was labelled ‘ACA OP’.

  This has today’s date on it.

  Alex double-clicked to open the file and stopped short when he saw one particular entry—Stella Wilde, forty Agents, on duty in Europe.

  ‘Stella’s in Europe, again?’ Alex said, then, making the connection, ‘And Sam’s in Paris …’

  He scrolled through the kit list and found nothing other than standard operating equipment. He was about to close the screens and return to the home page when he saw an update at the bottom of the file list. Stella had just picked up her vehicles in Austria.

  ‘Austria?’

  He clicked on the update. It included the payment of over a million dollars to a private security firm for the use of eight armed helicopters and flight crews for a twelve-hour mission.

  ‘What on earth would you want all those armed helicopters for . . ?’ Alex muttered, but before he could investigate further, he heard voices approaching and hastily shut the screen, racing from the room.

  I need to talk to the Director. Right now.

  20

  ZARA

  Zara was wide awake late into the night. She’d heard her parents go to bed, waited an hour, then crept through the apartment to her parents’ study. The walls were lined with bookshelves and she closed the door and flicked on a lamp. Inspecting the shelves, she took down as many books on da Vinci as she could find and spent two hours going through them.

  Nothing. No mention of a special key, or a Bakhu machine.

  But he did make machines of all kinds.

  Who are you, Sam? And what is it you’re really up to?

  Yawning, she put all the books back, switched off the lamp and tiptoed down the hall to her bedroom. She climbed into her bed, pulled up the covers and closed her eyes.

  ZARA’S NIGHTMARE

  I am at work, I think. But it’s dark and quiet. I’m meeting someone here but I cannot remember who or why. I walk through the rooms I know so well. I feel at ease in the presence of all this beauty, it makes me feel calm.

  But something changes—there’s a noise in the distance and then I turn a corner to see him. It’s the boy from the bookshop but somehow I’m not surprised to see him here.

  ‘Gericault’s The Raft of the Medusa,’ I say as I walk up to him.

  He turns to me as I stand beside him, then looks up at the impressive painting.

  ‘A magnificent work,’ I add. ‘But not what you came for.’

  ‘Zara,’ he says.

  I look at him. ‘Sam,’ I say.

  We smile at each other.

  ‘Follow me,’ I say. And he does. We are not in the Louvre anymore. We’re not in Paris anymore. I smile, realising I have been here before.

  Da Vinci, of course.

  We’re walking through the house, creeping like thieves. But we’re not stealing, are we?

  The fireplace is large and ornate. I reach out to touch it. It disappears at my fingertips, and before I can gasp, a lion is upon us, gone just as quickly, leaving us blinking in wonder at a whole new room.

  This is not a dream—this is a hallucination.

  Now I know I am far from reality. This place cannot exist. There are scrolls and books littered everywhere in the dusty workshop. My eyes struggle to make out objects scattered across the stone floor. Is this where the master worked? Could it be?

  Sam is pulling at my arm, saying, ‘But for now we have to find what we came for.’

  I know he is right, so I go over to a creaky desk in the far corner. I rummage through the drawers and pull out a heavy box.

  I am shivering and scared. We are swimming in freezing water, my clothes are dragging me down. It’s dark, too dark. I can’t see anything.

  ‘Sam! Sam!’ I shout. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘I’m just here, don’t worry,’ he says but my heart keeps pounding.

  I cannot see him.

  Why is it so dark?

  Then I hear more splashes behind us. Shouts of men who are chasing us. I feel Sam grab my arm.

  ‘Come on!’ he whispers, ‘we can make it–’

  ‘Run!’ he shouts.

  I chase after Sam, along the banks of the river, and look over my shoulder.

  Men in grey suits are chasing us.

  ‘They’re Enterprise Agents!’ Sam yells. ‘We can’t let them catch us. Come on!’

  Enterprise Agents? Like—like my parents?

  I do a double take—I’m sure that one looks familiar, that he’s a friend of my father’s from the Sorbonne.

  ‘Where are we going?’ I ask—then I crash into the back of Sam. He’s stopped abruptly and is standing stock-still.

  Then I see the figures before us, a group of huge guys, emerging from the shadows.

  ‘Who is it?’ I ask, grabbing onto Sam’s arm. My ears are ringing and my heartbeat thumps loudly in my chest.

  ‘His name is Hans,’ Sam says.

  There are at least a dozen men with him, huge and menacing. Our pursuers stop behind us, standing on the embankment, facing off.

  We’re trapped.

  ‘You’re out of luck, boy!’

  That voice … it is terrifying. I can see that it freaks out Sam too. He’s backing away a few paces from the sound of it, pushing us towards the river.

  ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ the terrifying voice says. ‘You’ve got nowhere to run.’

  ‘This is Solaris,’ Sam says, and a figure steps forward.

  I gasp as I take in a tall figure dressed all in black, shimmering as though in a heatwave. It’s hard to focus on him, it makes my eyes hurt. A black mask covers his whole face. It’s as if the darkness I hate so much has come to life.

  Please, make this nightmare stop.

  ‘And who’s this?’ Solaris says. ‘The next Dreamer, the next of the last 13? Ah … she is!’

  ‘Leave us alone!’ Sam shouts.

  Solaris glowers and I f
eel my knees begin to give way from fear. I grip Sam’s arm even more tightly.

  The other two groups are standing still, as if frozen in time. The tension is unbearable–everyone is waiting to make their move.

  Solaris says, ‘Tell me where they are … the key, the Gear …’

  His voice, so deep and rasping, makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. I blink and suddenly Sam is choking, fighting to breathe. Solaris has him, and he is crushing his throat.

  I cry out in horror, closing my eyes.

  I must give him what he wants. I have to save Sam.

  ‘Tick, tock,’ Solaris mocks, holding Sam off the ground by just one outstretched arm. His face is going red. His arms claw uselessly at his neck, desperate for air.

  ‘Let him go! Please!’ I rush at Solaris. ‘What you want is in here!’

  I throw Sam’s backpack high into the air as I reach for Sam. Solaris releases him, going for the backpack as I hoped he would.

  But everyone else moves too, rushing at us, and just as quick—

  There’s an explosion of fire, a wall of heat and flames. I hear a mad, metallic-sounding laugh echoing loudly as I cling onto Sam. The fire is now everywhere around us.

  ‘I gave you what you wanted!’ I scream.

  But there is only the heat now, smoke closing in on us, choking us. I look up to the night sky but it’s all too late.

  Beyond the flames, there is only the darkness that I dread.

  21

  SAM

  Sam was flying, the wind pummelling his face, taking his breath away. Through the howling of the rushing air came another noise, an insistent ringing.

  An alarm?

  Again and again, louder and louder.

  Ringing. A phone. Close by … hunh?

  Sam came to and fumbled for the hotel phone sitting on the bedside table. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Sam?’ the Professor’s deep voice said over the phone. ‘Are you OK?’