“What took me so long? I was in a long negotiation with a skilful opponent. And alas, I could not bring Lucio. Eva would have had me dismembered.”
Eva smiled. “I’m sorry, Andreas. I already had one son in trouble. Rocco tried hard to persuade me and I in turn argued the battle party should not follow us, but lay in wait on the trails in between the township and the fortress. I too, can sense where Paolo was being taken, and it was clear to me the township’s defence would be better served by protecting us from the fortress. But I am here, and willing to fight alongside you. And hear the remarkable story of our two young men.”
Andreas nodded. “Sending the men to the trails was quick thinking. And you were right. Lucio has no place here. Now we need to get to the township and make a plan to recapture Makthryg while he is still vulnerable.”
Rocco chuckled. “So we heard, my friend. Along with the rest of the forest.”
The six of them marched two-by-two, led by Rocco and Tomas. Paolo and his mother held hands as they walked in the middle, with Andreas and Nathan bringing up the rear, and in deep discussion.
~ 25 ~
Gone
Sarina was still angry with him, that was clear. Harrison tried a soft approach. “Sarina, what happened back there? In the warehouse I mean. You’re angry with me, aren’t you?” He craned around to look at her in the back seat of the car. She was still clutching the collider tightly in its sacking and wearing the headshield. Glaring at him. He wondered if he should have brought headshields for himself and the Agent, but it was too late to think of that now. Perhaps with her sensitivity to rem, she had discovered something he didn’t know.
If he could get her to talk. “I know you’ve been through a great deal—”
“You have no idea. What do you know?” She threw the words at him.
He sighed. “I’m sorry. For whatever it is I don’t know. But please tell me what you can now. The world’s fate hangs in our hands.”
“So you’ve abandoned Nathan now have you?” Her eyes glittered and she pulled the collider tight to her chest.
He shook his head. “Far from it. What I meant to say was that we have a very serious issue on our hands and very little time to come up with solutions.” He was going to add ‘if our brains will still function creatively’, but from the look of the girl, it was best to wait for her cue. He still needed her to be on his side. “Please tell me. Tell me what’s on your mind, and what happened.”
He could see the conflict in her eyes. She was angry, but wanted to talk. He waited.
She spoke in a low voice. “I thought I was going mad. I thought I would be locked up in a horrible place like ... Stratfords. Like my two great-aunts were. For their whole life.” She jutted her chin forward at him. “I kept blacking out and having horrible dizzy spells; especially when I was painting. And I couldn’t talk to anyone about it, because I had the retreat, the creative workshop and the competition to focus on. All the doctors would have done is poke and prod, connect my brain to machines, make me take pills and make me take time off.” She tapped the headshield. “It wasn’t until I put this thing on to avoid being trodden on by rats, that I realised it wasn’t madness at all. No—my brain had nothing wrong with it. Nothing at all. It’s your stupid machine that’s made it all go wrong. And now I’ll miss the competition completely and I’ll never get to art school—if there’s ever any art again ever—and I’m the one who made it all worse in the first place!” She took one look at him and buried her head in her arms on top of the sacking. He could see her back heaving.
“I’m very sorry, Sarina,” he said. “Up until now, I had no idea the collider’s instability and the spikes would ever affect anyone outside of the labs in that way. You obviously have a far higher level of sensitivity to rem than even we thought.”
She raised a tear-stained face. “I know why it's spiking like that. And I’m the one who caused it.”
He started. “What do you mean? Caused what?”
“When I used the cold-plasma stuff in Paolo’s world and we transmuted that substance; all three of us—Nathan, Paolo and I—had to use our power to defend ourselves. It went out of control and I stopped it with a blast of some energy. After that, Valkrog vanished, and we never found out where he had gone, or if he was dead. Until now.” She looked directly into his eyes, hers clear now. Her voice was calmer. “I found out when all these problems with the instability started. It was when I accidentally sent Valkrog here. It’s all my fault, Professor. Now we have to send him back. And rescue Nathan.” She had that determined look on her face he’d seen before.
“Let me think, Sarina. You’re saying the act of sending the creature here somehow made our rem problem worse?”
“Yes. If Nathan was here, I'm sure he'd have an explanation. He said to me once that he didn't understand why the dream-portals even worked, but there had to be some local problem with some black energy, or something. Me sending that creature here has caused an even bigger imbalance. I think Valkrog might be attracting the bad rem into our world, and leaking even more of our good rem away through the hole I accidentally punched when I blasted him here. If we stop the connection between the worlds, we can make the bad stuff go away.”
He nodded. “Dark energy. And dark rem. Actually what you say makes sense. Very good sense. I’m glad someone still has the ability to think creatively—”
“And that’s another thing, the world has gone crazy, Profess—”
He held up his hand in apology. “I know. I think I might be able to fix it. But if we can first reduce the leak by sending the creature back and make it safer to work on the collider ...” he paused and stroked his chin, “it could work.”
Sarina tapped her headshield. “You’ll need these. And the Intensifiers. I left one at the warehouse too, I couldn’t carry everything.”
He held up the Intensifier he’d collected from the tunnel. “I’m sorry you had to go through this. And by yourself.”
She sat up straight. “I forgot to tell you! I went into their world using an Intensifier and helped Nathan to be smart again. Makthryg had cursed him into a drivelling idiot. If we didn’t have a world emergency on our hands, I would have left him like that a bit longer, as punishment for not warning me about my blackouts.”
“Hmm. And you didn’t have nightmare visions?”
“Oh yes I did! But I had Nathan’s sock”—she frowned—“which I’ve dropped somewhere, but then I remembered Lena, and focusing on her in my mind helped me conjure a strong image of bravery. But, Professor—you need the headshields handy. As soon as you put a headshield on, the nightmares stop. Much easier.”
“You worked that out all by yourself?”
She nodded. “In a dark tunnel. With rats. And blackouts. And this thing.” She shivered and inclined her head at the collider on her lap.
He smiled at her. “Sarina. Put the device down on the seat next to you. We’ll be back at the building any moment now and we can get organised. I’ll take the collider back to the shielded room, which will stop a lot of our issues from getting worse. Then we’ll get the kids together and send the creature back.”
She slid the package off her knees and onto the seat beside her and sighed. “How will you reverse the problem, Professor? I thought you told me it was like lighting a match? Blowing the match out won’t stop the fire, will it?”
He shook his head. “No. I have to find out a way to unlight the match. Do it all backwards and reverse these chain reactions.”
She sat back and looked at him for a long time.
The car pulled up inside the underground car park. Agent Smith turned off the engine and looked back. “Lena told me how brave you were, Miss, hiding like that. I wanted to thank you, no matter what happens. I have two young girls myself, and it’s their future I’m fighting for. Now we all have to dig deep and try one more time.”
Sarina nodded.
They stepped out of the car. This time, Harrison took the collider and gave Sarina the
Intensifier.
When they walked out of the lift, Sarina stopped him at the corridor. “I need to get changed and freshen up. Where will we meet?”
He nodded. “In the café. I’ll get the kids, who goodness knows have been through enough today. Let’s hope this is the last time.”
“They know what to do by now, but make sure they have something to smell and a headshield each. The headshields need to be arranged so each person can exchange their Intensifier for one at any time. Have them practice that too.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Won’t you be there?”
“Yes, I just need to get changed.” She looked back at him as she walked off.
He shrugged and walked to the collider room. He set down the device and punched in his codes. Inside, he placed the machine back on its proper podium, placed his own headshield on and pulled the sacking off.
-00:56 blinked at him.
He stared at the display for a moment, not quite believing his eyes.
56 seconds past the threshold?
They had no time. If they’d had any opportunity to create a portal, it might already have disappeared. They would have to try immediately. And face the menace of an ever-increasing threat from the dark rem.
He raced to the door and punched the button. Jimmy walked past the room as the Professor stepped out and he grabbed him by the arm. “Jimmy. Can you please assemble all the kids and have them bring an Intensifier and a headshield each. Meet me at the café as soon as you can—it’s urgent. We’re going to have to work quickly. I’ll get Sarina.” He ran down the corridor, leaving the boy open-mouthed.
“Professor, what are we doing?” the boy yelled after him.
“Putting something back where it belongs!” he shouted down the corridor, “Hurry!”
He turned the corner and knocked on Sarina’s door.
No answer.
He knocked again. “Sarina? The collider went past the threshold and you didn’t tell me. We have barely moments to send the creature back and I need your help.”
Nothing.
He knocked again and turned the handle to enter. Emergency overrode privacy at this point, he reasoned. The room was empty. “Curses! Where is the girl?”
What to do—to search for her and waste time, or assemble the kids and shove the bird-thing back through an unstable portal? Sarina was right, the connection between the worlds had almost certainly caused a major imbalance. But if he waited any longer, there would be no portal worth having. Any portal—collider-created or not—would be seriously dangerous now.
He tapped his foot. Curse this spell on creative thought!
At last the decision came. Once again, he would have to try making the portal with the kids and not with Sarina’s help. She’d said they’d done it before, so he had no option left open to him but to try. But he would have to take the collider to the café. He would not have that creature in his collider room, even bound, gagged and unconscious. Not that they would all fit in there anyway.
He turned to leave and saw the piece of paper on the floor by the door, with a hastily written note.
‘Professor Harrison. There is one thing we can do that no-one has thought of yet. I think I know a way to unlight the match and fix the hole in the bucket at the same time. I just realised we were thinking about it the wrong way. The best way to plug a hole in a full bucket is not from the outside. It needs someone to do it from the inside. Like putting the bath plug back in, and it can only be done from Paolo’s world. I’m going back there to rescue Nathan and together we will seal the connection for good from our end. Please tell my Mum not to worry.
Don’t worry about the kids, I’m sure they will happily see Valkrog gone from our world. You’ll probably need to put on an Intensifier and join them.
I have to go and fix what I stuffed up.
Sarina’
His heart sank.
What could he do? To find her and stop her would lose them the chance to transport Valkrog. But she would have no idea that the threshold being exceeded meant certain disaster for any portal. He wasn’t even sure they would be able to send the creature back. Or if he would arrive in one piece.
But if Sarina tried by herself—and if she left it too much longer—then she might be going to her death. Unknowingly. He closed his eyes a moment to try to send away the thoughts of what he had inflicted, and was about to inflict, on innocent children. It didn’t work. He heaved a sigh, and his heart still heavy, he hurried back to the collider room, oblivious to the stream of kids passing him.
Agent Smith was at the entrance to the room. He saw the look on the Professor’s face and raised his eyes.
“The girl has gone off on her own. To try to make her own way to the other world—”
“Do you want me to—”
“No. We have no time. The threshold has been exceeded and we have to act now before it’s too late. Bring the creature up to the café. Take good care to secure it, knock it out if necessary.”
The Agent nodded and ran to the lift.
~~~
Sarina had changed quickly out of her sauce-smeared clothes and grabbed the nearest thing, which happened to be the last lot of clothes she'd discarded when she first arrived. Oh well, at least they didn't come pre-smeared.
Then she'd written the note.
She'd made the decision in a split second—when the Professor had said 'unlight the match' and Agent Smith had said 'we have to dig deep'. The two things had fused together in her brain when she was in the back of the car, and led straight to the idea that what needed to be done could only be done from inside the bucket. From inside Paolo’s world.
She would go back there by herself and undo what she had done. Rescue Nathan. Prevent Makthryg and Valkrog from ever doing any damage ever again. And somehow, find a way to help the Professor 'unlight the match'.
She already had the beginnings of an idea nagging away at her; something Nathan had said about the portals and chain reactions. If she could reach him, she was sure together they would solve it. She was no scientist, and Nathan was the only one who might be able to understand and help her get the idea out of her head and into a plan.
As for the Professor? Well he would understand the science of her idea, but she was certain he wouldn’t agree to her physically going by herself to Paolo's world. He'd say it was too dangerous. Anyway, he had his hands full sending the bird-creature back. For a split second her mind had hovered between staying to help the kids be safe, and slipping out by herself. She felt her expression harden when she thought about the millions of kids—maybe billions—who might never create anything beautiful ever again. If she was right, the world could be saved, and those kids would have the chance that she wouldn't. She would gladly trade her place at the French Art School if it meant making such a difference.
Making a difference. She thought of Rona, who must have suffered terribly, yet had such a positive outlook. She wished she'd been able to see Rona again, and without thinking, reached into her pocket and felt the tin of pastels she'd made sure to take with her when she changed clothes.
The memory triggered thoughts of her mother, and how desperately she'd miss her. She was probably still travelling back from Paris, and wouldn’t be easy to contact. Sarina tried not to think about who else she would miss, and instead she turned her thoughts back to a world crippled without creativity.
If she could do anything to fix what she had unwittingly made worse, she would do so. After which she'd find a way to hold these so-called scientists to account for their ridiculous experiments. She might have 'lit the match', but they were the ones playing with fire. All these thoughts had whirled around her head as she left the building via the car park, clutching an Intensifier and wearing a headshield. She pressed the button to raise the security gate as she'd seen the Agent do.
It was almost dark again now, and she was hungry, tired and unwashed. This young artist might never be famous, but she would save the world.
She walked for seve
ral blocks until she reached the nearest residential area and sat down at a bus stop to rest and think. Thinking was hard. Was her own thinking now being contaminated by the rem-loss? She supposed so. The headshield might be protecting her from rem spikes and the machine, but from the little information she’d read in the newspaper and the Professor’s own problems, she assumed she must be starting to be similarly afflicted.
So what was she doing sitting here trying to think? Memory. The Professor had said something about memory.
That’s right—he’d said things we had done before wouldn’t be affected. He’d even used her as an example. If she tried to paint, then attempting something new would not work—and she knew that feeling—but if she recreated something she had already done from memory, there should be no problem.
She rubbed her lip. Hadn’t she thought of something before leaving the lab? A way to make a portal?
Drat this stupid rem-thingy!
She stood and breathed deeply. She would keep walking and try to remember what she had planned. She frowned as she walked. Was it something to do with skateboards? Nathan loved his skateboards. She shook her head to try to clear it. She looked across the road at the streetlights. They were illuminating some grass—
Grass! Now the memory came flooding back. She started running, now knowing exactly where she was heading. She turned the corner and stopped dead, shielding her eyes from the glare of the headlights of several cars lined across the road and aimed directly at her. She started to back up and turn around when a large hand clamped her shoulder.
“Not now, Miss Metcalfe. You’ll be coming with us. To the station. We have some questions for you.”
Numb, she walked behind the sergeant in a daze. Other police moved around her, a door of a car opened and she was shoved inside. Another man climbed in and sat beside her. She looked up at him. Inspector Bolton. He grinned at her.
“Now suppose you tell me what you’ve done with the explosive device, Miss Metcalfe. If you play nicely with us, and tell me everything before we get to the station, there’ll be no need to involve all those little kids now, will there?”
The Dreamer Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set Vol I - III: A Sci-Fi Parallel Universe Adventure (The Dreamer Chronicles - Science Fiction For Kids And Adults) Page 56
