by Gareth Otton
“You sure they’ll take the bait?” Stella asked from his side.
“The second they sense Growler dreamwalking back here, they’ll know a dreamcatcher has failed. Calmer heads might not react, but Simon is chomping at the bit to get in here.”
Tad nodded at a screen showing the car park where Simon was screaming at his people. He had bandaged up his hand as best he could but hadn’t gone to hospital as none of his men could drag him away.
Tad looked at another screen and watched Mitchell take a hacksaw to the dreamcatcher that was two rooms removed from the reception. Hopefully, they wouldn’t hear the sawing outside and as Tad glanced to the car park, he realised that Simon’s distracting rant was a blessing in disguise.
Tad felt nothing when the dreamcatcher broke, but he felt the spike of Dream as Growler popped into existence beside him, wagging his tail and happy to have played his part. Keeping his eye on the car park, Tad was pleased when all the dreamwalkers looked at the building like they were seeing it for the first time.
Please, Tad thought to himself. Take the bait.
The talk in the car park became an argument as dreamwalkers started shouting over each other, some pointing at the door. For a full minute no one moved, but Simon must have won them over because one by one they headed for the door.
“It worked,” Stella hissed. “Right, I’m going to get into position.”
“Don’t take any risks,” Tad said, not liking the part Stella wanted to play in this. However, Stella rightly pointed out that if they were going to win through the day, they all had to play to their strengths. Right now her strengths put her by Leon’s side, fighting with him. Trevors’ people would be the first line of defence, with Leon and Stella picking up stragglers and floating between rooms where necessary. Meanwhile Tad would remain here, watching for where he was needed most and then coming in as backup.
“The same goes double for you, Holcroft,” she said before rushing out the room with Freckles one step behind her. Growler looked up like he wanted to go with them, but Tad shook his head.
“Sorry buddy, but you’re stuck with me. We’ll have our fun though, don’t you worry.”
He scratched behind the dog’s ears before stepping back over to the monitors as the first dreamwalker crossed the threshold. The man entered cautiously, not believing his luck that he could get inside. However, his suspicion passed quickly as he led his group towards the stairs while Simon led the others toward the tactical rooms.
Tad waited for the last of the dreamwalkers to enter the building before he spoke a pre-arranged word into the radio, signalling for Trevors’ men who had slipped out of the rear entrance to come around and place one of the dreamcatchers at the door. From that point on, no one would be able to dreamwalk in or out of the building, trapping everyone here.
“Here we go,” Miles muttered as they watched the first group approach the canteen.
The dreamwalker in the lead pushed the canteen door open and took one step inside when suddenly there was a flash of bright light and an explosion of noise as a flash-bang grenade that had been rigged on that door erupted. The monitor went white, forcing Tad to look away. When he looked back, he saw dreamwalkers rubbing their eyes and others covering their ears. One flickered like he just tried dreamwalking away, but the new arrangement of dreamcatchers wouldn’t allow that.
Taking advantage of their surprise, Trevors lead a small team toward the canteen and had already subdued the first dreamwalker with dreamcatcher embedded handcuffs before any of them even realised Trevors’ men were there.
However, the dreamwalkers weren’t alone and the ghosts recovered quickly. They warned their dreamwalkers that they were in danger and might have done more had they not suddenly froze when Gary made his presence known. Before any of the dreamwalkers could come to their senses, the Dream Team moved through the group and subdued as many as they could. The startled dreamwalkers didn’t have it in them to respond in any way other than to flee, but it didn’t get them far. As they rushed down the stairs, the men who had placed the dreamcatcher at the exit were coming towards them. They had Chakikra with them to deal with the ghosts, so the dreamwalkers had no choice but to run back upstairs and try to escape by fleeing deeper into the building.
Motion on another monitor caught Tad’s attention as the downstairs group led by Simon entered an interrogation room. Once again there was a flash bang waiting for them. However, this team must have heard the explosion from upstairs and the shouting that followed, and they were more wary. The explosion hit a rippling, transparent wall and Tad felt the spike of Dream as one of the dreamwalkers somehow shielded the group.
However, Tad hadn’t expected this to work every time and as the door opened further, the dreamwalkers encountered another trap that they weren’t prepared for. They had rigged up the classic Home Alone trick of paint cans on string, or in this case, industrial sized bottles of floor cleaner that struck the first of the dreamwalkers in the face. Unlike on the children’s movie, this was not so easy to shrug off as the criminals in that movie made it seem. The dreamwalker was knocked out cold as his nose shattered and he crumpled to the floor. Simon weaved to avoid another bottle as he stepped into the room to find it empty.
Stepping back out, he screamed for his people to keep moving as wasn’t happy that some of them stopped to help the unconscious man with the broken nose. He was even less happy moment later when one of their dreamwalkers tried to dreamwalk away only to once again be stopped by the new arrangement of dreamcatchers. Yet again he screamed in frustration, growing more unstable by the moment, then led the dreamwalker advance down the corridor, blowing the next-door open using a gust of wind rather than touching it himself.
Tad felt the spike of Dream again and knew that the man was calling too much power. He was wearing himself out, and coupled with his injuries, would be coming close to the end of his reserve. This was good because while Simon checked on the next room, the rest of Trevors’ people sprung their trap as they exited another room, taking out the rear dreamwalkers before they had a chance to respond.
Even when they did respond, they were more preoccupied with defence than attack beceause Trevors men had people with guns in a safe zone created by the new dreamcatcher arrangement. Those men were providing cover fire, safe in the knowledge that the dreamwalkers couldn’t attack them in return.
Tad watched all this unfolding on the monitors and was surprised that so far things were going as planned and he wasn’t needed. They hadn’t lost any people, and they had taken out over half of the dreamwalkers without much of a fight. It looked like they would have an easier time of this than he thought. Instantly his ghosts rebuked him for celebrating too early, and it was Rodney who reminded him that no plan survived first contact with the enemy.
While their plan had done well so far, Tad’s interenal celebration had indeed jinxed them.
A flash of bright light made Tad look away from the struggle between Simon and his people toward another screen. When the camera adjusted again he was dismayed to see that there was fire lining the upstairs hallway. One of the dreamwalkers had decided not to play by Tad’s rules and sent a fireball ahead of them to turn the hallway into an inferno. Those dreamwalkers then sent their ghosts ahead to find any remaining traps and clear the way.
“That’s our cue buddy,” Tad said to Growler before he rushed out of Miles’ office into the corridor beyond that was glowing with flickering orange light as fire consumed the carpet and spread along the corridor. It was like stepping into an oven, a feeling that was far too familiar. The fingers of his left twitched more violently as his mind flashed back to Swansea. But he wasn’t the same man who dealt with that fire nightmare. It might have only been six months, but it felt like a lifetime ago. He had learnt a lot since then.
Tad waved his hand, stirring up the air and calling to Dream. A sudden wind rushed down the corridor and the flames whipped out of existence like they were candles to be blown out in the world’s la
rgest birthday cake. Tad had pulled over more dream than normal, the power of his ghosts making him careless with his strength. The wind knocked over the dreamwalkers at the end of the corridor, flinging one completely out the door and into the waiting arms of Trevors’ men.
The ghosts weren’t affected by the wind, but Tad had other ways of dealing with them. He concentrated on those ghosts, forcing them to freeze with only the power of his will. There were too many to stop at once as Tad couldn’t concentrate on so many ghosts at the same time. However, that problem was taken care of when Freckles launched himself from Stella’s office where he had been waiting and tackled one ghost to the ground.
Seeing his brother have all the fun, Growler was off like a shot, chasing another ghost. That ghost was smart and turned to run back to the dreamwalkers who were climbing to their feet, but Growler was faster and soon had the last ghost on the ground.
The remaining three dreamwalkers tried wrestling control of their ghosts back from Tad, but didn’t have much luck thanks to his ghost aided strength. However, one of them was quick to change tactics, and he called to Dream and shouted at Tad. The sound travelled with such force that it rippled the air, the shock-wave lifting Tad from his feet. He flew right past Miles’ office and struck the wall, his skull bouncing from the stone so hard that his vision swam and his thoughts grew sluggish.
He collapsed to the floor, groaning and vulnerable for the ten seconds it took his ghosts to heal him. However, when he got his thoughts back on track and looked back down the corridor expecting another attack, he realised he didn’t need to be worried. Stella and Leon had joined the dogs and attacked the remaining dreamwalkers. A ball of fire flashed toward Leon who dodged easily, supernatural speed and dexterity surprising the dreamwalker who Leon left unconscious a moment later with a single punch.
Stella dodged twin lines of red laser-light. Tad had never seen her move like that before, almost like a dancer as she ducked and weaved between flashes of light, somehow never getting caught. It was almost like she could see what was coming before it happened and was always one step ahead of those deadly beams. However, Tad knew it would take only one mishap and Stella would be gone forever. A red light of his own flashed in front of his eyes as anger consumed him and he screamed, “Stella, hit the floor!”
Putting her new supernatural reflexes to good use, she dropped. It was Tad’s turn to fire off his own bright light and for the first time since arriving he attacked with deadly intent. Their clear willingness to kill Stella meant they had forfeited their lives in his eyes and he didn’t hold back as he sent beams of pure white energy toward them.
Neither were prepared for his attack and his light flowed through their chests, leaving steaming hot holes and surprised faces before they collapsed to the floor, dead instantly. Tad rushed over to make sure that Stella was all right, but after she glanced at the corpses she turned on him, her face angry.
“I had them,” she hissed.
“They were trying to kill you. All it would take one touch from that laser and you would be as dead as they are.”
“You didn’t have to kill them,” she said, but some of the fight had left her voice.
“I saw the damage those lasers did. I wasn’t letting that anywhere near you.”
Stella still didn’t look happy, but he could see when she turned away that she at least understood. He looked up in time to see Leon subdue the last of the dreamwalkers, locking another pair of dreamcatcher enhanced handcuffs around her wrists. As soon as they were in place, Trevors appeared in the doorway and looked inside.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“Yeah. That’s the last of them. Go see if they need a hand downstairs,” Stella said.
Trevor’s nodded once before disappearing again, closely followed by Tad, Stella and Leon. The dogs overtook them on the stairs and soon they were all headed towards the sounds of a battle in the corridors below.
Neither dog paused for a second before rushing towards the confrontation, but didn’t get much action. By the time Tad arrived, things were already wrapping up.
Sandra, the seventeen-year-old dreamwalking cheerleader, was by the unconscious man who had taken the cleaning bottle to the face, and she raised her arms in surrender. Tad was horrified to see her caught up in this, remembering the always cheery girl who used to come to the meetings and wondering how Jacob could live with himself after pulling her into this madness.
Trevors ordered one of his men to secure her and the unconscious man, then continued into the corridor, past the body of a dead dreamcatcher with a bullet hole in his head along with the body of one of Trevor’s men who hadn’t been so lucky. His head was missing and the wound had been cauterised, telling Tad how this happened. He glanced at Stella in time to see her looking at him, and he knew she now understood why he didn’t want to risk her getting caught by one of those lasers.
However, neither of them dwelled on the subject before they rushed towards the sound of combat and broke into the garage where the last of the dreamwalkers, Simon, was hurling balls of fire at the two dogs who were backing him into a corner while the remaining Dream Team secured two more dreamwalkers.
Freckles and Growler were barking at the balls of fire that extinguished with each bark. Simon’s tricks didn’t work on dreamwalking dogs, and they were too much. He was being backed up, and he ran out of time to think up a fresh way to defend himself.
Tad reached out to the air around Simon with his mind, picturing it solidifying as the natural air resistance built up to impossible levels, and he reached for Dream.
Simon froze, his hands outstretched as he warded the dogs away and his eyes bulging from his head as he struggled to move. Tad felt a spike of Dream as Simon tried to escape, but the man was tired, in agony, and had depleted the strength he needed to open that internal door once more. For a second only Tad felt resistance against his dream, but the man’s will faltered.
Despite having him dead to rights, neither dog attacked as they recognised what happened and backed away as Trevors rushed in to secure the last of the dreamwalkers.
Just like that, the assault on the DTHQ ended. Tad turned to Stella.
“What now?” he asked. With the brief battle over, his plan was finished and he wasn’t sure what the next course of action should be.
“I need you to get Mitena. We need to recreate the dreamcatchers to lock this place down, and we need new cells to hold these guys. We’ve already maxed out our capacity with the eidolon who attacked us last night.”
Tad blinked in surprise and asked, “What eidolon?”
Stella waved his comment away and said, “We’ll talk about it later. For now, I need Mitena so we can make this place secure again before we figure out our next steps.” Looking at Simon she added, “Maybe you should head to the hospital and see if you can get some kind of trauma specialists here as well. I could do without him passing out from his injuries before I find out what Jacob’s plan was today.”
She didn’t wait to see if he would do as asked before heading over to Trevors and issuing orders to get the DTHQ secure again and the dreamwalkers dealt with. She then went to Gary and Chakikra and started issuing orders to them about how to keep the ghosts secure. She mentioned that Tad will be going to get Mitena, who would hopefully have a more long-term solution.
Tad was impressed as he watched Stella in her element, working quickly and efficiently to solve the problems, and get them back to a good place to move on. As the Dream Team followed her orders, Tad wondered just how much better things might be for them right now if they had never doubted her. Hopefully, this situation would end the tension between her and Trevors once and for all they could start acting as a unit as they should have been from the start.
Stella said to Trevors that she would get Miles to call in reinforcements before she turned and saw Tad was still there. She shot him a glance that told him what she thought of that before heading back through the building like some unstoppable forc
e of nature. Tad smiled at the thought of Hurricane Stella working her way through the DTHQ and knew that when she turned her attention to Simon to ferret out what was going on today, the dreamwalker wouldn’t stand a chance.
Grinning to himself, he turned his thoughts to the prison where Mitena was housed and changed the channel.
32
Wednesday, 30th of November 2016
15:45
Jacob dreamwalked back to the Senedd and hoped this was his last journey of the day. Since taking the King Dream Gate and the Senedd, he had been zipping all over Cardiff to secure essential locations before dealing with the Prime Minister. For the most part, the takeover of Cardiff had gone well. He now had people at strategic sites all over the city, and they were watching for any intrusions from the military or police.
However, Jacob was sure that between his dreamwalkers and their ghosts, they had this handled. The only team left to report in was the one sent to take the DTHQ. He checked in with Simon earlier and knew there was a stalemate of sorts over there, but Jacob was happy enough so long as the Dream Team couldn’t get involved with what he was doing today.
Being as his plan was going so well, it was time to progress to the next step; talking with the Prime Minister and securing Cardiff’s future as a safe haven for dreamwalkers.
“Everything all right here?”
Brad looked up from his position by the entrance to the gallery to the main meeting chamber. His face was drawn, his skin pale, and there were bags under his eyes. The day had been as trying for him as it had been for Jacob. However, where Jacob was strengthened by his commitment to the cause, Brad was fighting every step of the way. Even though he believed they were doing the right thing, he was never comfortable going to such lengths. However, they’d come this far and Jacob knew he could rely on his friend.
“Everything’s fine. The hostages have settled down and we haven’t seen any sign of the police for hours. I’ve sent dreamwalkers out with their ghosts to create a perimeter and keep an eye out for trouble, but so far everything is quiet. We might actually pull this off.”
