The Dream Catcher Diaries

by Alexander Patrick

  ‘Then I’ll use my political influence to change it.’ She rose also. ‘Don’t pursue this. Please, think again.’

  ‘Thank you for promising to keep quiet about it,’ I said, and I left.

  ***********************

  Angus was waiting for me in the van. ‘Will she help?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Will she tell anyone?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He swore. ‘What now then?’ He pulled out his knife.

  ‘For fuck’s sake, Angus put that away!’

  ‘She can’t be allowed to talk.’

  ‘She won’t ...’

  ‘But you just said ...’

  ‘We send in Cyclops.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because they were once lovers and my guess is she’s never forgotten.’ I paused and smiled. ‘And if she has, he can remind her.’

  Chapter 77

  The prison guard moved through the prison, watching without appearing to be watching, listening without appearing to be listening, alert to every nuance, every breath, every movement around him. He walked up to a large man sitting at a table shuffling cards. He stood behind the man. The man stood up. The guard waited. ‘Yes, sir?’ said the man. His voice was respectful, but the guard knew just how much the prisoner hated him. He knew because he had made it his business to earn that hatred.

  ‘Time for a walk, Jock,’ he said. The prisoner turned and almost looked at him – almost but not quite. He had learned to keep his eyes down, that way you almost survived, that way they had no excuse. The invitation could mean anything. It was meant to be ambiguous. It was meant to worry. It usually succeeded.

  The prisoner threw his cards down on the table, glancing at his partners as he did so. A flash of cold blue eyes met theirs, and he was gone. He followed the guard through the prison. Another guard came up behind. He walked to their pace. He stopped when they stopped. If they chose to shout, to abuse, to cuff someone, he waited until they had finished. Because they took their time, he knew it was not a beating waiting for him – it must be something else.

  They took him to the visiting room. He waited as they unlocked the door and stood back until they gave him permission to go through. As he walked into the room, he saw that other prisoners were already there, sitting at individual tables dotted around the room. Visiting time was well under way. He knew that Angus had been kept waiting; his brother was never late, that they had deliberately held him back and stolen some precious time from him, and he could do nothing about it. This was a privilege for a lifer and one easily and often taken away from him.

  He sat down opposite his brother. Angus reached out a hand. They clasped hands and pulled apart. It was the only touching they ever did. ‘You’re late,’ said Angus, passing across the cigarettes and chocolate. Hamish put the gifts into his pocket but said nothing. It was strange but he always found it hard to speak. This was a visit that he waited for, dreaded and longed for – and yet when it came he was silent. ‘We’re having a party,’ said Angus.

  ‘Nice for you.’

  ‘Pity you can’t come.’

  ‘I’ll be with you in spirit.’

  ‘I’ll give you a call when we know the exact date, but it’ll be soon.’

  ‘Is it for anyone I know?’

  ‘Just some golden-eyed boy; you know the type?’

  ‘Aye, I do!’ He laughed. ‘Send him my regards.’

  ‘He wants more than that!’

  ‘He has it.’ Hamish spoke quickly and quietly, hiding the feeling inside, the rising feeling, one he was unfamiliar with.

  Angus watched him carefully. ‘Does he?’

  ‘Aye, he does.’

  ‘Pity some of your other friends can’t come.’

  ‘Oh, they can, you may be sure of that.’

  ‘What, all of them?’

  ‘Aye, all of them,’ Hamish glanced around. ‘Give me a call so I can think of you.’

  Angus smiled. They were both silent for a moment, watching the guard walk the room, arms linked behind his back. In answer to an unspoken question Hamish spoke. ‘Oh, he’s no so bad, there are worse.’

  ‘Will you know them when the time comes?’

  ‘After all this time? What do you think?’

  ‘What will the others do?’

  ‘I’ll leave that up to your golden-eyed friend.’

  Angus smiled again. ‘Right answer; they’ll be seen to. They’ll know what to do when the time comes. If they are as you’ve said, if your information matches ours.’

  ‘It will.’

  ‘You’ll need to keep it under control. This is something special.’

  ‘I get the picture, wee brother!’ Angus shook his head. He liked it when his brother put him in his place. He’d been seeing it less often as the years had passed – as they had slowly, but relentlessly, broken him.

  Angus waited for the right moment. ‘Do you know someone called Mason?’

  Hamish nodded. ‘Aye, there’s a hied-banger here by that name. They call him Screwdriver.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Use your imagination!’ Angus still looked puzzled. ‘You can do a lot of damage with a screwdriver,’ he said.

  ‘Make contact with him.’

  ‘You’ve got to be kidding?’

  ‘He’s your contact; he’ll be expecting you. He’ll help you when the time comes.’

  Hamish scrutinised his brother carefully. ‘What the fuck have you got yourself involved with?’

  Angus smiled. ‘A god – and you’ll meet him one day.’

  ***********************

  Hamish was escorted out. He glanced back and saw his brother. It always gave him strength; he was so proud of him. He needed that strength because he knew what would happen now – it happened after every visiting time. He always had to pay the price.

  But this time when they took him down to the toilets and strung him up, when they took the knotted rope and thrashed his body, when they left him there hanging, in pain and alone, this time, he knew. He knew that their time had come and he would have his revenge.

  He would have his revenge because a man with yellow eyes had told him he could, and he believed him.

  Chapter 78

  March 2040

  They came in the middle of the night. It seemed like hundreds; it was probably two dozen. Two dozen armed men dressed in black with their heads covered. I was asleep, but sleeping lightly. I heard a noise outside, and I knew what it was. I turned over to Sonia beside me and quickly shook her. She groaned, and I placed my hand over her mouth. ‘It’s happening! Get Caitlin!’ I whispered.

  She was awake immediately and up.

  I grabbed my crutches and swung rapidly down the stairs in the dark, not a problem for me. Soon I was in Elijah’s room and shaking him. ‘Now!’ I whispered in his ear.

  We knew what to do. This was always a possibility, and we had talked it through. Weapons were pulled out, alarms pressed.

  The men were in, coming from all sides – through the front door, the side doors and the windows – breaking and smashing as they did so, yelling obscenities, black, large and armed. I shot one, and they knew we meant business.

  We were two cripples, a woman and a child against two dozen armed men. We had an element of surprise, and we were defending not attacking. Even so, there were just too many of them, too few of us and they had caught us asleep. The one thing that saved us was that they obviously needed to take us alive.

  Sonia had her orders: to stay out of the way and keep Caitlin safe. She disobeyed, of course. She was an amazing fighter. I wasn’t surprised; bravery defined her. From the brief glimpse I had of her, she took two men down. Elijah took two before someone yanked him out of his chair. I fought in a blur, swinging my crutch with one hand, holding my gun with the other. Elijah was being dragged across the floor by his hair. Hades, my faithful dog, was shot dead in front of me. He fell with a final thud and didn’t move. One of the bastards kicked him out of the way.


  I screamed in rage. Someone snatched my crutch from me, and I was out of ammunition. I pulled out my knife. I swung my knife and spun around. I saw Sonia being struck on the back of the head. I watched her crumple and saw the bastards stamp on her. I screamed again at the sight.

  She was pregnant. She had only told me that morning. She had told me shyly and with joy – a moment of sunshine in a grim world, a gift from me for when I was gone – a daughter she said, a playmate for Caitlin. They were stamping on her as if they knew, as if they recognised what that small bulge meant. Help arrived at that moment. Angus, Stewart and Euan came charging in.

  Soon it was all over. It left me holding Sonia in my arms. I held her. She was bleeding and I wept for her.

  ***********************

  ‘The baby’s gone, isn’t she?’

  I nodded.

  ‘Oh, David!’

  I held her close. What can a man say when faced with such grief? This was one anguish I could never share with her – but I could hold her, and I did.

  When her sobbing had subsided, she slept, and I watched her sleep, my brave little Sonia who had fought like a tiger, like a true member of the Brotherhood, but at such a cost.

  Angus came up beside me. ‘What now?’ he asked.

  ‘Matrix must hide,’ I said. ‘I need someone to take Sonia, Caitlin and Elijah somewhere safe.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘My brother’s house in the Midlands.’

  ‘I’ll see to it.’

  ‘Send Azrael or Cadros; I need you with me now.’

  He looked puzzled.

  ‘We have a revolution to start.’

  Chapter 79

  Hamish was reading. Before imprisonment he had rarely read; now it saved his sanity. He wasn’t sure about this book, though. His brother had recommended Little Dorrit; it made grim reading. A footstep alerted him to the presence of a screw. He stood up. The guard was grinning. ‘We’ve a call for you, Mackay. It appears you have a death in the family.’

  Another guard behind laughed. ‘One less Mackay for the world to worry about,’ he said.

  ‘Come on,’ said the guard. Hamish followed him out. He could feel the other prisoners grow tense as he passed them. He took the call. Guards hung around listening. They weren’t supposed to. The prisoners were allowed some private time, but it never happened – for security reasons they said.

  ‘Hamish? It’s Angus.’

  ‘Aye.’

  ‘I have some news.’

  ‘So I understand.’ He kept his voice neutral.

  ‘Wallace has passed away.’

  The code he’d been waiting for. He held his breath. ‘Will there be a wake?’ he asked.

  ‘Aye, think of us at 3am.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘All Fools’ Day.’

  He wanted to say, you must be joking; instead, he gave it some thought. ‘I can see why.’

  ‘It has its advantages.’

  ‘Wallace would approve,’ said Hamish.

  ‘Aye, well, that’s what we thought.’

  ‘Thanks for telling me. Pass on my thoughts.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘I’ll be with you on the first – in spirit at least.’

  ‘I knew you would.’

  He put the phone down.

  ‘A close relative?’ asked one of the guards.

  ‘A much loved dog, sir.’ He couldn’t resist it.

  The guard scowled. ‘Get back to the rec room,’ he said.

  Hamish hid his smile and did as he was told. Now all he had to do was pass on the word. April Fools’ Day, now that was what he called good timing!

  Chapter 80

  ‘This is pretty,’ said Angus, holding up the photograph. I winced. I knew I would regret that photograph. I snatched it from him, and Sonia snatched it from me.

  ‘It’s you!’ she cried.

  ‘Glad you recognised it,’ I replied.

  Everyone took a turn to look. They all stared at my mutilated body – the photograph anyway, the photograph that my media man had taken.

  We were sitting in a squalid room in the North, planning the revolution. The photograph was a useful diversion. I thought I had placed the people I loved in safety, tucked away, away from the violence – and then they had turned up at my secret location.

  I glanced over at Phaedo; he had come and had brought Alastor with him. Two of the people I cared most for in the world, sitting where they shouldn’t be sitting, looking smug and confident. They had every reason to be. I had too many things happening, too quickly, to more than mildly remonstrate. But that didn’t mean I was happy about it; I was not. Matrix would be making his sacrifice for them and all the others, and they had just made that much harder to achieve. ‘I hope Cyclops hasn’t been left unguarded,’ I said in a petulant voice. ‘If anything happens to him – we fail. It really is that simple.’

  ‘He’s safe,’ said Angus. ‘We’ve people protecting him.’

  ‘As soon as he starts hacking into the Corporates, they’ll be looking for him.’

  ‘Has he put safeguards in place?’ asked Alastor.

  ‘Sure, he has,’ said Angus smoothly.

  I glared at him. Sometimes I doubted his sincerity. That was when he pulled out the photograph of me, supposedly taken to inspire the troops.

  Alastor was gazing at it. ‘It hurts to look at it,’ he said softly.

  ‘Great!’ I muttered, but I knew what he meant. It hurt me to look at it as well.

  ‘We’ve the suicides ready and willing to go in, should Cyclops fail,’ said Angus.

  I glared at him again. ‘You know what I think about that,’ I growled.

  ‘You’re too soft,’ returned Angus.

  ‘Too much knowledge,’ I said. ‘If it were that easy to take them down, don’t you think someone would’ve done it by now?’

  ‘It’s been tried,’ said Crusoe. He was pacing the room, dressed in his full biking gear, ready to leave at any moment, ready to fight.

  ‘And failed,’ added Andrew.

  ‘The same could be said for your idea to hack into the systems!’ Angus replied angrily.

  ‘They didn’t have Cyclops,’ I said. It was true. We had a genius working for us, and that meant something. I wasn’t sure that the General totally understood the importance of that; his mind was too fixed on short-term objectives. It was why he was crap at chess.

  I sat sulking and watched as the photograph of me was passed around. Everyone looked at it; everyone became hushed.

  Sonia spoke at last. ‘It’s wonderful,’ she said. She looked at me. She knew. She knew how difficult it had been for me to have that picture taken. ‘It tells the whole story in a simple picture,’ she said. She turned to Stewart. ‘We must make sure that everyone has this. Everyone must see it. This will help them understand.’

  Stewart nodded and smiled.

  Alastor sat next to me. ‘So, what exactly is the plan?’ he asked.

  ‘We bring the country to a standstill,’ said Angus.

  ‘That means we can move around and no one else can,’ said Euan.

  ‘How does that work?’ asked Phaedo.

  ‘You have the bikers,’ said Crusoe proudly. ‘You can use us as transport and defence.’ As our first contact with all the biking gangs, Crusoe was important. He was well connected and well regarded by all the chieftains, particularly Black Angel and, of course, Iron Man. He would make moving around the country possible.

  ‘We keep the army busy,’ I said. ‘That’s crucial. We have a few on side and some who may hesitate to shoot us – but not enough. We need to run them ragged, divide them, keep them busy until we get the Opposition to tell them to stop.’ I paused. ‘We use the Matrix worm. Civil unrest, conflict in the streets ...’

  ‘And control of the power and communications,’ added Alastor.

  ‘Information will be important,’ I said. ‘We have the lists of known NF members and their targets and – thanks to you, Phaedo – we have the names
of all the families directly affected by Section Twenty-six. Information and communication will win us the revolution.’

  ‘And explosives,’ said the General.

  I ignored him. ‘And we have my secret weapon,’ I said.

  Alastor looked startled. ‘Secret weapon?’ he asked.

  ‘I’ve something special up my sleeve that will make the armed forces stop and listen. We can’t fight them. If they chose to come down hard on us – and they may ...’

  ‘Why shouldn’t they?’ asked Phaedo.

  I shrugged my shoulders. ‘Fear may make them hesitate,’ I said. ‘If we gain public sympathy quickly and completely, they’ll need to be careful how they deal with us. But we can’t rely on that. That’s why we need my secret weapon.’

  ‘Are you going to tell us what it is?’ asked Alastor.

  ‘Wouldn’t be a secret then, would it?’

  He cursed.

  ‘Every good chess player ...’

  ‘The main problem will be Matrix,’ interrupted Angus at this point. Everyone stopped talking to look at him, including me. ‘We need you everywhere at once,’ he explained.

  ‘That’s why the photograph’ll be important,’ said Sonia. ‘In effect, he will be everywhere.’

  Angus shook his head. ‘Not good enough.’

  ‘Then we bring down the government,’ I said, turning to Alastor.

  ‘You’re not listening!’ said Angus.

  I turned back to him. ‘I really hope you were right when you said that Cyclops was safe,’ I said quietly. ‘Because we’ve already thought about that, and that’s something he’s sorting.’

  Angus went pale, and then I knew that he would make sure that Cyclops really did get the protection he needed and deserved.

  As the conversation died down, Crusoe pulled me to one side; he was looking irritable. He’d been assigned the role of my driver, but he knew he’d been usurped. ‘I suppose you want Phaedo to bike you round now,’ he complained.

  ‘I need you for something else,’ I said.

  He looked surprised.

  ‘You need to look after Alastor.’

  He groaned.

  ‘He’ll want to get involved, just make sure no one touches him.’