by S. S. Segran
Jag noticed. “Hey, space cadet, where you at?”
“She’s convinced she saw that guy from yesterday,” Aari explained, completely doused and shaking water from his hair.
“What? Here?”
“Yeah. She said she saw his reflection in the tank but we can’t find him.”
Jag inspected the mass of holiday-makers for himself for a minute, then went over to put an arm around Mariah. “Are you absolutely certain, ’Riah?”
Mariah gave him a furtive nod, though now she was beginning to doubt herself.
Jag gave her a gentle squeeze. “I know you’re still spooked about what happened, but it looks like he’s not here.”
She looked away, feeling only somewhat reassured. Jag gave her another squeeze before letting her go.
The friends made their way out of the pool and grabbed their towels before heading up to their rooms to change, then strolled down the street to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. As they were guided to a table outside, Tegan burst out laughing. “I don’t believe this!”
Mariah gazed around to see what she was talking about. Her eyes landed upon a familiar face. Despite being distracted with what happened at the shark tank, she broke into a delighted grin. “Tony!”
Tony, who was sipping on a cold beverage, looked up from a few tables away. When he saw the five, he nearly choked on his drink. Coughing and laughing, he stood up and waved them over, pumping the boys’ hands and quickly hugging the girls.
“This is crazy!” he exclaimed as they sat down at his table. “When I said maybe I’ll see you guys here, I didn’t think I actually would!”
“Maybe we should travel together,” Kody joked as they picked up their menus and looked through the dishes that the restaurant offered.
Tony waved a waiter over. “I just arrived a couple of minutes before you. You guys know what you want?”
They nodded and placed their orders. Once the waiter left, Tony leaned back and stretched. “This place is so alive,” he noted. “Kinda wish I could spend a night or two here.”
Aari removed his sunglasses and tucked it into the collar of his t-shirt. “Why don’t you?”
“I haven’t seen my girlfriend in four months and I really don’t want to spend more time than necessary away from her.”
“That’s really sweet,” Tegan said as she and Mariah beamed at him.
Tony turned a little red but smiled and changed topics as he looked at their hair. “Been swimming?”
“Yeah. The shark tank at the Golden Nugget.”
Mariah looked down at the table, rubbing her shoulder. Even in a tank top, the evening desert heat was almost too much for her.
Tony tilted his head at her. “You okay?”
She glanced at him, debating whether or not she should tell him about what she’d seen at the Tank, but Jag beat her to it. Tony listened, wary, with a slight frown on his face. He looked back at Mariah.
“You saw his reflection?” he asked carefully.
She nodded. Tony turned to question the others and when they said they never saw the bearded man, he looked back at her. “It’s probably the lack of sleep getting to you. It can do things to your mind.” He smiled, though Mariah thought it looked morose. “Trust me, I know.”
Aari tapped the lens of his shades. “That’s what I was saying.”
Tony gave Mariah’s hand a soothing pat “Don’t worry about it, okay? I mean, how does it sound to you that someone would follow a group of teenagers from one state to another? It’s not like you kids are celebrities and he’s some nutcase or paparazzi.”
“Aren’t the paparazzi nuts anyway?” Kody piped.
Tony grinned. “True, but not all nuts are paps.”
Their meals arrived a short while later and they dug in hungrily. Once the check was paid, they lounged at the table, the friends wanting to stay with Tony as long as possible. He was easy to talk to and knowledgeable about a range of subjects. He seemed to enjoy their company as well, and was nearly in tears from laughing so hard at the group’s constant repartees and wisecracks.
The sun had almost completely set when Tony reluctantly pushed his chair back. “That was a great meal, guys. I’m glad you could join me.”
“Likewise,” Jag said as they all got to their feet. “We should keep in touch.”
“Definitely. Here.” Tony passed his phone to Jag, and Jag handed his to Tony. They exchanged numbers before returning the devices. Tony got his car keys out of his pocket and gave the girls another hug before bumping fists with Jag, Aari and Kody. “You guys have a great trip!” he called as he started toward his car.
“You too!” the five chorused as they watched him leave. Once the SUV rolled onto the street, they headed back toward their hotel. Mariah, who’d nearly forgotten about the incident at the shark tank, returned to a state of high alert as they entered the air-conditioned elevator that took them up to their floor.
Tegan lightly nudged her as the elevator dinged and its doors opened, allowing the group to step out. “Hey. Stop that. We are not being followed, okay?”
Mariah tittered guiltily as she trailed Tegan to their room. The guys headed to their own suite, which was several doors away.
Once inside, they showered and wound down for the night. Mariah curled up on her bed as fatigue overtook her. It probably was her over-anxious mind that fooled her into seeing the strange man. She sighed and closed her eyes. “Night, Teegs,” she murmured.
“Night, Mariah. Sleep tight—”
“—don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
10
Aari and the boys were wakened several hours later by heavy knocking on their door. Groaning, Aari rolled off his bed and went to open it, revealing Tegan and Mariah in their pajamas. By the looks on their faces, he instantly deduced what had happened. Quietly, he stepped aside to let them in.
“Dream?” Kody asked blearily, turning on the lights in the room.
Mariah flopped down onto one of the beds and covered her face with her hands, nodding.
Jag was trying to blink sleep out of his eyes. “A battle, kind of like on a mountain? Someone with a strange accent telling you to wake up?”
Mariah nodded again as Kody sat down beside her and gently rubbed her back. “Why is this happening?” she whispered.
There was a stretch of silence. In the stillness, Aari could hear his pulse in his ears. He cleared his throat. The others looked up at where he stood leaning against a wall. Slowly, he said, “Nature abhors a vacuum.”
Jag’s eyebrow lifted. “Come again?”
“It’s a quote by Aristotle. Way back when, he would observe the world around him and concluded that nature requires space to be filled with something. Anything. Doesn’t matter what.” Aari tapped the side of his head. “We have an emptiness—a vacuum, if you will—in our lives. I know we don’t really want to talk about it, but it’s there. A void. I think that, maybe, these dreams . . . ”
“What?” Jag prodded.
Aari let out a breath and directed his gaze toward the smooth, white ceiling. “I don’t know. This might sound crazy.”
“Aari, four out of five of us have basically had the same dream. Any explanation is probably going to sound normal in comparison.”
Aari pinched the bridge of his nose as he gathered his thoughts. “Okay, here’s my crazy theory. Our collective loss of memory is like a vacuum in our minds. We don’t remember anything that happened to us last summer. These dreams that you guys had—I think that’s nature’s way of filling in that vacuum, and by doing so, giving us our memories back.”
“You can’t really be telling me that by some weird stroke of . . . of randomness, we’re beginning to remember, at the same time, what happened to us?” Mariah finally lowered her hands from her face. “Because if that’s the case, then we seem to have been surrounded by mayhem and death. I’m pretty sure I’d remember something like that!”
“But that does fit, doesn’t it?” Jag asked quietly. “For whatever
reason, our . . . memories . . . are returning. How else do you explain the dreams?”
“Nightmares,” Kody corrected. “I believe the scientific term for such horrible dreams is nightmares. But I’m with Mariah on this. This is way too far-fetched.”
Tegan, who’d sat down on Mariah’s other side, spoke up. “Whether this is true or not, let’s get the facts straight. We survived a plane crash in Northern Canada. We’re found weeks later. We remember nothing in between those two events. Jag apparently has been having his dream often, before any of us had ours. In the dreams, it’s always some kind of fight between two groups of people. One with modern weapons, the other using primitive methods. We see destroyed buildings and debris everywhere. There are living, breathing killing machines around us. And then, at the very end, there’s a voice telling us that we need to wake up.” She glanced at Aari. “What he’s saying, no matter how absurd it is, actually makes sense.”
Kody fell backward onto the blanket. “This is insane!”
“There are many mysteries in the world,” Aari said simply. “Some can be explained, and others can’t.”
Kody grunted. “You sound really calm about all of this.”
“Because it makes sense.” Aari pushed himself away from the wall and went over to flop down on his bed. “Not gonna lie, I’m actually expecting to have that dream now. All of you have had yours, so it looks like I’m the last one.”
“If you do have it,” Tegan said, “then there’s absolutely no way any one of us can deny that the dreams are significant.”
“Nightmares,” Kody muttered.
Jag stretched. “Nothing more we can do for tonight. Let’s get some more shut-eye. We’re not going to oversleep like we did in Utah.”
The others agreed. Once the girls were gone, Aari went to bed, bracing himself for the nightmare to seep into his unconscious and trap him in its dark realm.
Come on, just do it, he pleaded, covering his head with his arms. Get this over with.
11
The city of San Francisco boasted many high-rise buildings, granting one particular structure the ability to assimilate with the rest of its surroundings. The nondescript gray-colored edifice hosted a large boardroom on its fortieth floor that offered a stunning view of the city’s azure bay, which—on sunny days—would have speedboats and sailboats alike exploring its waters as if it were a playground.
Today, however, storm clouds shrouded the sky. The gloom was broken only by near-blinding streaks of lightning, illuminating the city with electrified veins. The sound of rolling thunder could be heard over the rain pounding against the windows.
Within the boardroom was a broad, oval mahogany table, its presence both commanding and elegant. The impressive deep-red centerpiece was surrounded by twelve opulent black leather chairs. At one end of the table, standing in the place of a thirteenth chair, an eight-foot high silver screen was mounted on a curved wall.
A tall, Caucasian man sat facing the screen, his fingers laced together and his thumbs supporting his chin. His dark hair had recently been cut short and his long face was clean-shaven. Adrian Black was the chief executive of Phoenix Corporation, a wealthy establishment with a global reach that, among other things, owned many properties including the one he was currently in. It also had its hands in many industries, ranging from biotech and armaments to mining and construction.
Though ordinary in appearance, the building housed secrets accessible to only a select few who worked within its walls; hence the name “Tower 51”, a joke spun from America’s top-secret military base in Nevada. The boardroom, as remarkable as it was, withheld from view a smorgasbord of high-tech devices that were ingeniously tucked away. It connected all of the corporation’s activities worldwide—operations that Black was ultimately responsible for.
Despite the restless, intense weather outside, Black felt more at peace than he had in months. Two major operations had produced some challenges for a while but now everything was on track and finally running without a hitch.
There was only one other person in the boardroom this afternoon. Jerry Li, the corporation’s chief financial officer, was a short and tubby fellow of Asian descent with thick-rimmed glasses and an infinite collection of bowties; or at least it seemed so to Black as, in all the years they’d worked together, Li had never worn the same bowtie twice.
Currently, the two were in the midst of a video conference with Vladimir Ajajdif, the head of one of the company’s major operations. Black leaned back in his chair as he scanned through a report on his tablet. “You are working on private land that the company owns, Vlad. The authorities aren’t breathing down your neck. I thought your progress would have been far more substantial.”
The auburn-haired man on screen sighed, then took a drink from a Styrofoam coffee cup and replied in a deep, Russian-tinted accent. “My group’s progress has been great, Adrian. I dare say we’re one of the better teams on this project.”
Black raised an eyebrow and smirked. “As good as you think you’re doing, Vlad, you’re still behind the other five Sanctuary operations.”
Ajajdif scowled for a second before plastering on a smile that never met his eyes. Through his teeth, he muttered, “Mudák.”
“What was that?” Black asked.
“Nothing.” Ajajdif took another sip from his cup. “I’ll let my team know that we’re falling behind. They’re a motivated bunch. The moment they hear those words, their productivity will double. Triple, even.”
Black nodded slowly. “Glad to hear it. This should run much smoother than your operation in Canada last year, hm?”
Ajajdif bristled. “That was uncalled for, Adrian.” He absently ran his middle finger over his nose. It had been surgically reconstructed after being severely broken nearly ten months prior while he was working on a clandestine mining operation in Yukon.
Li coughed, interrupting the tension that seemed to always emerge whenever Black and Ajajdif addressed one another. “How is the weather treating you there?”
Black noticed that Ajajdif looked a little relieved to be speaking with someone else. “It’s fine. Hot. We’re on the New Mexico-Arizona border, so what do you expect?”
“I trust the men with you are well-occupied?”
Ajajdif snorted. “You bet they are. They work like mules. When they get time off I let them visit Silver City. It’s a fun little town. They don’t complain much.” He looked around him as if to ensure no one was within earshot, then asked, “How’s the REAPR project going?”
“You don’t need to be concerned with that,” Black said sharply. “I want you to stay focused on your assignment over there. I have to prepare a report for the Boss in twenty-four hours and I’ve vowed that there will be no more fiascoes. I appreciate that things are running smoothly now. We don’t want a repeat of Quest Mining’s disaster from last year.”
Li and Ajajdif went completely silent. Even though Black and Ajajdif were rarely on good terms, the one thing they shared was a fair dose of fear of the Boss and a hunger for the realization of their leader’s plans for the future—not just for Phoenix Corporation, but the whole world.
After nearly an hour of further discussion on operational matters, Black took in a small breath. “Anything else to report, Vlad?”
“No.”
“Good. We’ll keep in touch.”
The feed from the screen and sound from the hidden speakers went dead. Black pushed his chair back and stood up. “And so another day comes to an end. Would you like a drink, Jerry?” he called as he made his way to the fully-serviced bar behind the curved wall. “Never mind, I’ll get you one anyway. I think we deserve it.” He returned a minute later with two glasses and passed one to the other man.
Li smiled as he took it. “Thanks.” He held up his drink. “To the Boss—a brilliant visionary, a benevolent liberator, and a ruthless trailblazer.”
Black smiled in return and clinked his glass with Li’s. Reverently, he echoed, “To the Boss.”
Soft, warm sand cushioned Tegan’s feet as the friends made their way down to the beach at Carpinteria, taking in the beautiful golden coast and picture-perfect cobalt waters lapping at the shore. A gracious ocean breeze cooled the heat of the day. It was just after noon and the friends were looking forward to relaxing on the beach they had last visited as children.
Kody trotted ahead, weaving his way between kids building sandcastles and people sunbathing with shades on as he led the group toward a spot he’d pinpointed the moment they’d stepped onto the beach. Jag and Mariah followed while Tegan walked behind them with Aari.
Tegan glanced to her left. Aari’s eyes were narrowed against the sun’s glare and though she knew his thoughts were roiling, he was careful to not show any emotion.
After Mariah’s nightmare, the five had anxiously waited for Aari’s dream to occur.
It was only two nights later, once they’d arrived in California, when it happened, and Aari told them about it before leaving for the beach. His words had been met with silent pats on his shoulder. There truly was nothing that could be said to comfort him, and the group agreed not to discuss their dreams for the time being—they wanted to take it easy and forget it all for a while.
“And here we are,” Kody said, looking pleased as he unfolded his beach towel and spread it on the sand. He plonked himself down and turned his baseball cap around so the brim could shade his eyes from the sun.
The others settled down on their own towels as well. Tegan looked out to the ocean where a handful of surfers were attempting to ride the waves. Most of them seemed to be novices, but one dark-haired teenager about fifty yards out exuded confidence has he stood atop his surfboard. She observed him quietly, watching how he carved a wave with ease. Obviously native to the area, he was bronzed from many hours outdoors and navigated the waters well.
She continued watching him for a while as the other four either read books, ate, or dozed; they’d decided to put off plunging into the water for a bit. A group of children ran past, giggling ecstatically as a couple of older kids chased after them with foam swimming noodles. Tegan smiled, then returned her attention to the teenage surfer.
