by James Phelan
‘Jaded?’
‘Being bored of something,’ Eva explained. ‘I guess you would have seen all kinds of amazing places before.’
Gabriella was silent and Eva continued to stare deliberately at the map.
‘You don’t like me, do you?’ Gabriella asked.
Eva thought about a few replies before closing her eyes and saying, ‘Sam’s out there, somewhere, alone and in harm’s way—and he nearly got killed last night …’
‘He nearly got killed because of me,’ Gabriella said quietly.
‘I’m worried about him. I’m not blaming you, but we should be doing more to help Sam.’
‘OK. Thank you.’
‘Thank you? For what?’ Eva frowned.
‘For being honest,’ Gabriella said. ‘Most people do not speak to me with honesty. They see me as what was created around me. But the “pop principessa” thing, it’s just a mask. That’s not really me. This is me—here, now. I am worried about Sam too. But only a little.’
‘Only a little?’ Eva scoffed.
‘What I know about your friend Sam is that he’s very brave,’ Gabriella said, turning to walk towards the plane.
Eva slowly followed behind Gabriella, keeping her distance.
Well, you’ll just have to excuse me if I decide to do more than just wait around to see what happens next, principessa.
05
SAM
‘That’s it,’ Xavier said. ‘It’s the building from my dream.’ Man, it’s so lucky Xavier can remember some of his true dream from just the other night. Hmm, luck—or should that be ‘fate’?
‘And it only took a few minutes wandering around the Brandenburg Gate to find it. Not bad, I think. Now all we have to do is find a way inside,’ Sam said.
They stood across the road from the nondescript brick building on the edge of Berlin’s business district. The midday traffic was picking up as the lunch-hour rush set in, and the two of them looked nervously about. Everything seemed normal—in fact, everything seemed too normal, too calm, as Sam imagined sinister-looking Agents and rogue Guardians hiding just out of sight.
Agents, Guardians—everyone’s after us now. What has my life turned into?
And Sam could hardly believe how well Xavier had taken the news about being a true Dreamer.
Maybe it isn’t so tough to be the messenger. Gabriella took it in her stride too … I didn’t really get into the whole ‘last 13’ thing though … one step at a time.
For now Xavier seemed happy to go along with Sam’s assurance that they were doing something important. He’d not pressed Sam for too many details, and Sam had been relieved to delay that conversation.
Sam snapped back into the moment and studied the building, which had thick steel bars over its wire-mesh windows. It was a veritable fortress, keeping safe what was stored within.
‘I mean, having dreams come true like this …’ Xavier said.
‘Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,’ Sam reassured him.
‘It’s unbelievable!’
‘You can say that again,’ Sam said, preparing to cross the road once there was a break in the traffic.
‘It’s unbeliev—’
‘Come on,’ Sam said, quickly making to cross the road—‘Wait!’
He pulled Xavier back from a passing tram that had appeared from behind a truck travelling the other way.
‘That was close! Thanks, man,’ Xavier said, watching the tram trundle up the street in a cloud of dust.
‘That’ll teach us,’ Sam laughed nervously.
‘To cross at the lights?’
‘To remember our dreams!’ Sam looked left and right. ‘Come on.’
By the red steel door was a plaque—
‘Should we knock?’ Sam asked.
‘I find it easier,’ Xavier said with a smile, twisting the handle, ‘when the door’s unlocked, to just go on in.’
They walked into a surprisingly high-tech foyer. A large glass door was set into a secondary glass wall, in front of which sat a receptionist behind a long marble desk. The young woman turned to them with an expectant look.
‘What do we do now?’ Xavier said, standing stock-still just inside the entrance.
‘Just go talk to her,’ Sam said quietly out the corner of his mouth. ‘Tell her that your dad funded the project on the Ramses Dream Stele dig and that we were sent here to go through any remaining items.’ He smiled at the waiting woman. ‘That’s got to be what we were looking at in the dream. Right?’
The receptionist continued to look at them as she smoothed back her hair, putting down a magazine and leaning forward.
Xavier was uncharacteristically hesitant. He looked to Sam as if to say, are you sure this will work?
‘You’re Mr Charm, so go on, charm her,’ Sam hissed.
‘Going through items … right, good one,’ Xavier said as he walked up to the receptionist, Sam following close behind. Xavier placed his hands elegantly on the desk. ‘Guten morgen, Miss. I’m Xavier Dark, I’m here to inventory the—’
‘Dr Xavier Dark?’ she interrupted him, eyes wide.
‘Ah—yes, that’s right,’ Xavier replied in a deeper voice, coughing and standing up a bit straighter. ‘I’ve financed countless exhibitions and field work for your museum. Surely you know of me?’
‘Ah, yes, we’ve been expecting you. Forgive me, I’m new here,’ the receptionist said in flawless English, suddenly animated and showing them both a broad, gleaming white smile. ‘I’m so sorry Dr Dark, you are here earlier than your appointed time, my apologies. And, well …’
‘You thought I’d be older?’
What? Don’t mention that!
‘Yes, actually,’ the receptionist said with an embarrassed giggle.
‘I get that a lot,’ Xavier said, now cool as a cucumber once more. ‘Good genes,’ Xavier said, leaning back on the desk and giving her a wink.
There was a moment’s hesitation—
Uh-oh. Too much?
And then, ‘But, of course. Just a moment,’ she said as she brought up a screen on her computer.
Xavier turned around to Sam and grinned. Sam rolled his eyes but smiled back.
Yes, yes, you’re very charming …
‘If you have some ID, please?’ the receptionist asked. ‘Just a formality for you, Dr Dark, but we must follow procedure.’
Without missing a beat, Xavier flashed his passport fast enough to stop her from noticing his date of birth.
A nearby guard stepped up and handed over two visitor badges.
‘Down the corridor, third door on the right, and I’ll have someone from the Pergamon’s research department attend to you right away,’ the receptionist said apologetically. ‘As I mentioned, you are earlier than expected, otherwise they would be waiting here for you, sir. Our apologies.’
‘Thank you,’ Xavier said, perfectly playing the part of his father. ‘We will wait there for your researcher, third door on the right.’
The receptionist nodded and pressed a hidden button. The heavy glass door clicked open and she motioned them through. Near the third door on the right, the corridor deserted, Xavier turned to Sam.
‘I can’t believe she thinks I’m my father,’ he said with a cheeky grin.
‘That’s a lucky break for us,’ Sam said. ‘Good thing you can pass for a guy with a PhD.’
‘But that means that my father’s due here later today,’ Xavier said.
‘I guess he might have made the appointment a while back, to go through what’s left from the dig site where they found the Dream Stele,’ Sam said.
‘Yeah, that could be right,’ Xavier said. ‘And he’d especially want to come now—to see what’s left after the Stele was destroyed in New York.’
‘Well, there’s only one way to find out,’ Sam said, ‘which is to see what’s behind this door …’
‘… and to find out if the rest of my dream comes true,’ Xavier finished Sam’s thought. Sam noticed Xavier warily joining the
dots, matching up his dream of coming here to the reality of what was actually unfolding.
‘I’m having the weirdest sense of deja vu, being here with you right now, doing something we’ve done before in my dream. It’s beyond spooky,’ he added.
‘This is how it feels to live out your dream in waking life. You’ll get used to it,’ Sam replied, giving Xavier a reassuring nudge.
‘Yeah,’ Xavier said. ‘And there is something here, I know it … but what will we tell my dad?’
‘Was your father in your dream?’ Sam asked.
‘I think so, but not here,’ Xavier said. ‘I can’t be sure though, it’s confusing.’
‘We’ll worry about what to say to him if and when we end up seeing him,’ Sam replied. ‘Come on, let’s find what we came for and then get out of here, OK?’
‘But …’
‘What?’
‘I just remembered more of my dream,’ Xavier replied, ‘I don’t think we get out so easily.’
‘Oh?’ Sam said, his own dream playing back in his mind’s eye.
‘Yeah, it went really … crazy.’
‘Crazy how? Can you remember anything specific?’ Sam said, his hand on the door handle. Going through Xavier’s dream together on the flight to Berlin, he’d thought they knew enough to manage this part without too many complications. They’d arrive at the archives, get into the room, find a scroll that was somehow important and run before they were discovered.
‘No, it’s so frustrating. I’m just getting flashes of it. I can see boots … someone’s boots,’ Xavier looked at Sam.
‘Well, the best thing we can do now is get in and out as quick as we can.’
‘Yeah.’
Sam opened the door.
06
ALEX
Alex stretched his arms above his head and cracked his knuckles as he swung round in his chair to face Shiva. His new boss was seated next to him, preoccupied at the code scrolling across the large screens ranged along his desk. He sensed Alex’s gaze and tore his eyes away from the glare, pulling out his earphones. Alex could hear heavy metal music pounding away in them.
‘How you doing, Alex? Need a break?’ Shiva said. ‘Let’s grab a drink.’ He rose from his chair.
‘Sure thing.’ Alex followed him out of the dimly lit computer lab, passing in front of Matrix, who scowled at Alex as they walked by. ‘What’s his problem, anyway?’ Alex asked when they were out of earshot. ‘How come we never hear about what he’s working on?’
‘That’s just his baseline for friendliness, don’t worry about it,’ Shiva laughed. ‘And he’s always been a bit secretive and weird. Part of his genius charm, I guess. But how are you finding the work? Not too challenging for you?’ he laughed again.
‘As if!’ Alex shot back with a smirk. ‘Actually, I’m kinda loving it. Feels like I’m really in the game now, trying to predict who the last 13 might be.’
‘And you know we have other techs working on how to find Solaris,’ Shiva said. ‘Stopping him and finding the last 13 are the two best ways we have of getting the situation under control and making sure no-one else gets hurt.’
They walked back from the drinks machine, quietly slurping as they went.
‘So you really believe we can find some of the last 13?’ Alex asked.
‘Well, Sam was an Enterprise Dreamer so there’s every reason to hope we might have successfully created more of them. And that code we’re working on is just one way we’re trying to narrow it down to the most likely candidates.’
Alex sat back at his desk and returned to his screens.
Saving the world, one line of code at a time. This’ll do for now.
Shiva threw a scrunched-up paper ball at Alex. When Alex looked up, Shiva was pointing to the door.
Alex’s mum, Phoebe, stood in the doorway. ‘You wanted to know if we had any updates on Sam?’ Phoebe said, coming over to sit beside him at his desk.
‘And?’ Alex replied, immediately looking to her. ‘Is he OK?’
‘It seems that he’s fine,’ Phoebe replied. ‘He popped up on the grid north of Rome.’
‘Was he alone?’
‘I’m not sure, that’s all I learned in the briefing,’ Phoebe said.
‘Where’s he headed?’ Alex said.
‘He was on a private jet to Germany,’ Phoebe said.
‘Can I contact him?’ Alex asked.
‘I’m not sure if that’s a good idea,’ Phoebe said. ‘Not just yet. It would raise questions around here. Too many questions, which we’re not sure yet how we want to answer.’
‘But—I’m a part of this dreaming thing, you said so yourself, the Director too. I mean, I could be one of the last 13, like Sam, right?’ Alex said.
‘We don’t know yet, but of course it’s possible,’ Phoebe said. She looked away as she added, ‘I’m not sure I’d want you to be. If something happened to you …’
Alex nodded and looked down at his desk. ‘I know, Mum, it’s OK. I just wish I knew one way or the other. It’s the not knowing that’s really messing with my head. When do you think I’ll know?’
‘If that could be foreseen, or designed somehow, then this would all be so much easier,’ she said. ‘That’s why Jack has you all working so hard on figuring that out.’
‘But until then it’s all up to chance?’
‘Chance, destiny … something like that,’ she smiled.
07
SAM
‘What the …’
The room was about a hundred times bigger than Sam had anticipated.
This isn’t the lab from my dream. Guess we’re not there yet.
Steel shelves reached a ceiling over five metres above them and stretched out in long rows, nearly as far as the eye could see as they disappeared into the gloom. Sam closed the door behind them. It clunked shut with a heavy thud.
‘Great,’ Xavier said. ‘We’ve got a warehouse of stored junk to go through. We’ll be here for days before we find this scroll. I thought someone was coming to meet us? Where do we start?’
‘It was your dream, buddy,’ Sam replied. ‘Think back.’
‘You dreamed it too,’ Xavier said.
‘Not the finer details like you did. My dream jumped around from the moment I opened the door. We need more info.’
‘Right, ah …’ Xavier closed his eyes and squeezed them tight as he tried to recall his dream. Then he opened them and shrugged. ‘Nup—you know what? I got nothing. Nada. Zilch. Maybe the dream fried my brain.’
‘Then let’s start to look around,’ Sam said. ‘Maybe you’ll see something that’ll jog your memory.’
‘Right, OK, cool. Which way?’ Xavier asked.
‘Straight?’ Sam suggested.
‘Really? I was thinking left.’
‘Right,’ Sam said. ‘It’s your dream, we’ll go left.’
‘Or right,’ Xavier said. ‘I mean—do you feel that maybe right is the better way to go?’
‘Why?’ Sam said.
‘You said right,’ Xavier replied.
‘When?’ Sam asked.
‘A couple of seconds ago.’
‘Huh?’
‘Oh man …’ Xavier rubbed his hands through his hair in frustration and confusion.
‘Xav, I think it’s up to you—’ Sam began.
‘Or we can totally go straight,’ Xavier said. ‘I mean, first you said straight, like immediately you said it, so that might be right, yeah?’
Sam shook his head and rubbed his temples as a headache set in.
‘Can I help you?’
‘Argh!’ Sam nearly jumped out of his skin as a woman appeared behind him.
‘Wow, where’d you come from?’ he gasped.
‘This is a restricted area,’ she said in clipped, crisp tones. Dressed in a lab coat and carrying an electronic pad, she seemed suspicious of the two visitors before her and she leaned forward to scrutinise their visitor passes. ‘I see your passes grant you access. But you were discussing whe
re to go?’
They took a long look at each other.
‘This is Dr Xavier Dark,’ Sam said, jumping into the silence and motioning to Xavier. ‘And I am his assistant, Dr Samuel Gold-en—Goldenstein. Professor, actually. I’ve got two PhD’s, actually. Isn’t that right, Dr Dark?’
Sam smiled to Xavier who looked as though they’d been found out as frauds and would be frogmarched out to waiting police.
‘A little young for doctors, aren’t you?’ the woman asked, one eyebrow arched over her glasses.
‘American colleges,’ Sam explained with a wave of the hand. ‘You can buy any degree for a price these days.’ He nudged Xavier with his elbow. What’s wrong with him? Is he afraid of getting into trouble with his father?
‘Hmm, so I’ve heard …’ she said, consulting her pad. ‘Dr Dark, I see. You are here about the artefacts from the Larnaca site?’
‘Yes!’ Xavier snapped back to life, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. ‘Ah, that is correct, yes, the artefacts from the Larnaca site. Excellent. Professor Goldenbloom?’
Sam coughed back a laugh. ‘We’d like to personally inventory what is left here,’ he added. ‘From the site. At Larnar …’
‘Larnaca,’ she said, her eyes narrowing. ‘Very well, follow me.’
‘Larnaca, right,’ Sam said, walking next to her. ‘I like your accent. German?’
She gave Sam a withering look and turned to Xavier. ‘And everything is well with the exhibition in New York?’ she asked as they crossed the labyrinthine corridors of storage.
‘Oh yes, why wouldn’t they be?’ Xavier replied.
‘I read a news report about the opening night,’ she countered. ‘That some pieces may have been damaged?’
‘Hmm,’ Xavier said, looking to Sam. ‘A minor embarrassment, someone smoking in the toilets set off the sprinklers, but everything’s fine—’
‘I heard from a reliable source that there was a fire,’ she said.
‘A very small fire, nothing to worry about,’ Sam added. ‘More a smouldering hand towel really, right, Doctor?’
‘Yes, I do believe you are right, Professor,’ Xavier replied.
