“Wait.” It was Tomas. “Just because the messenger is our enemy does not mean he does not speak the truth. I would hear him out before we close our minds too hastily. Makthryg, speak true. What do you propose?”
“I know where Valkrog is heading. The boy is correct: he seeks this device. But we must find both him and the device, or we will not survive.”
Andreas folded his arms and raised his eyebrows.
Makthryg nodded and continued. He had them now, he was sure. He thought it best not to mention the persistent dreams of the young girl from the other world. One step at a time. “Valkrog is dying. He believes this machine will reverse his condition. He means to use it. If he does so, then we are all doomed.”
~ 24 ~
The Phone
Professor Harrison opened the door to Lena’s bedroom, expecting a bundle of energy to throw herself at him, as she would every morning.
“Lena?” Harrison peered into the room and looked around. “Lena? Where are you hiding? Come out please—we have to go out and you haven’t had breakfast yet.” He felt his chest tighten. He threw open the curtains and pulled back the bedclothes. No Lena.
He knelt down and peered under the bed. “Are you under ... ?” but it was obvious the girl was not in the room. An icy hand clutched at his heart. How had they got past the guards? He kicked himself for not asking Blanchard to put Lena in a secure house, and for thinking they were beyond the reach of whomever was sending the messages. Whoever it was, they were matching Blanchard’s expertise, which was no mean feat.
He pulled out his phone and tapped speed dial. “Blanchard, it’s Harrison. Any progress?”
“No, sir, though we’re now quite certain it’s someone on the Committee. I’m hopeful the next twenty-four hours will bring a result. I have to tell you, sir, the push-back has been considerable. I’d say we’re up against a powerful adversary.”
“The Consortium? You’re confirming it’s the Consortium?”
“I think that would be a safe bet, sir.”
“Hmm. And now we have another young name to add to the list of missing persons.”
There was silence at the other end for short time before Blanchard spoke up. “Lena, sir?”
The Professor heard the name and held his breath for a moment to regain control. “Yes, Blanchard. From my own home and underneath the noses of your two men.” He shook his head to clear it. “I’ll head into the lab to finish up work on our plan, then I have to attend the Committee meeting in the late afternoon. Let me know as soon as you confirm any new information. I’ll call you as soon as I am out of the meeting. Blanchard?”
“Yes, sir?”
“We have very little time. Pull any strings you can, call in any favours you can. We may not have another chance.”
He hung up and looked at Lena’s pillow, which for the first time he noticed had been thrown off the bed. He picked it up, placed it back, and resisted the urge to rip it apart. His frustration would be better directed at finishing the fake collider and trading his own freedom.
~~~
Lena struggled between the two big men in the car. They were trying to take away her phone—the one with the picture of Daddy. She’d been dreaming of him again when the men had come into her room in the middle of the night and held a hand over her mouth to stop her from making any noise. She could see from the bandage on one of the man’s hands that she’d managed to hurt him when she’d bitten down hard, but she had not succeeded in waking her other daddy.
Now they were in the back of a big car, with blacked out windows, speeding somewhere. She was still in her pyjamas, but she’d been sleeping with the phone under the pillow and had managed to slip it down her pyjama top before they had pulled her out of bed. In the car, the phone had slipped out again and now the men were trying to take it from her, with no success. She let out another ear-splitting scream. “Let me go! That’s my phone and my daddy’s photo and you’re not going to have it!” She lunged at the man on her right just as the car bumped, and managed to sink her teeth into one finger.
“Yeeeoooww!” The man yelled and ripped his hand free, looking at the blood running down his hand.
A man in the front passenger seat turned around. He had a mean, pinched face. “Can’t you men keep a five year old girl quiet?”
“I’m six,” Lena said. “They keep trying to take my phone and I won’t let them. I’ll scream like this”—she let out another high-pitched ear-splitting squeal—“if they try again.”
The man in the front dived at her and snatched the phone away. He looked at the screen.
Lena screamed, and kept screaming, even though the man on her left slapped her face.
Then the phone was thrown back in her lap, and she stopped, red-faced, and grabbed the phone, clutching it to her chest. She glared at the man in the front.
He stared back, then spoke to the men either side of her. “You idiots. It has no SIM card. Let her have it. It’s more trouble than it’s worth—and in any case, the Russian’s lead-lined hold won’t let anything in or out. Not even an emergency call. Not even”—he grinned coldly at Lena—“telepathic messages.”
The car seemed to drive forever through the night, and Lena succumbed to sleep, and her dreams of another world. A world where her real daddy still lived, she was sure. Even if the man she spoke to in her dreams wasn’t.
~ 25 ~
Escape Hatches?
Sarina awoke with a start. The door to their now bigger enclosure had started to grind open. The tidal buffeting had subsided, and although her stomach was hollow and ached a little, she’d been able to get some sleep. But she was sure it wasn’t yet morning. One look around revealed everyone else still sound asleep. Except Rona, who looked over from her mattress and held a finger up to her lips. Sarina nodded and indicated the door with her head and a question in her eyes. Rona shrugged. Sarina pointed to her own chest briefly, then to the door. Rona nodded back and mouthed, ‘Be careful.’ Any chance they had to alert someone on the outside, or escape, would be worth the risk. Sarina hugged the wall and tiptoed across to where the door was grinding its way back, staying hidden and keeping pace with its progress. Maybe if they thought everyone was asleep, she could slip away without being seen.
But the door stopped well short of its usual end point.
Sarina held her breath a moment, then slipped around the gap—and crashed straight into a small figure who was thrust through the door. Before she could recover, a strong hand had shoved the two of them way back into the hold and they tumbled together onto the floor. The door rumbled closed.
Sarina untangled herself from the small figure. “Lena!”
The small girl sat up. “They took me from Daddy. But I bit one of them. Then the nasty rat-faced man snatched my phone.” She reached down into her pyjama top and adjusted something. “But he gave it back to me to stop me screaming.”
Sarina pulled Lena in tight. “You’re brave. Come and get some more sleep. Nathan is here, and so is Rona.” And a bunch of other kids, she thought as she surveyed the room. All involved with the Professor. She looked at Lena and spoke softly so as not to wake the others. “Do you think the Professor knows you were taken by the men? Is he okay? Do you know if anyone else knows all the kids are here?”
Lena shook her head. “He didn’t wake up when the men came into my room. He’s been working and working and working. I think he was too tired. He didn’t tell me the men had taken other children. Are they all from Daddy’s experiments?”
Sarina nodded and yawned. “I think you must be tired too. Snuggle up with me here.” She pointed to the mattress and blanket on the floor, then looked over at Rona and mimed sleep with her hands.
The two of them snuggled, and Lena was asleep within minutes, twitching and muttering in her dreams. Sarina wasn’t so lucky, and her mind resisted sleep for the rest of the night, until the door ground its way open again with breakfast.
The other kids stirred and stretched themselves awake. Rona pulled herself up w
ith the help of the railing nearby, and into her wheelchair. She nudged Nathan, who was close by and rubbing his eyes. Rona nodded her head over to where Sarina was getting to her feet and Lena was yawning. Nathan sat up straight, and squinted. He stood and looked over the maze of camping mattresses, sleeping bags and blankets.
Lena squealed when she saw Nathan and ran to jump-hug him. He lifted her up and looked at Sarina. She walked over and joined them. “She arrived in the middle of the night. The Prof hasn’t said anything about ... you know, but by the sound of it, he’s been working long hours.”
Lena pulled away from Nathan and nodded, her eyes wide. “I think he has something special he has to finish. I heard him talking to Mr Blanchard yesterday.” Her face fell as something dawned on her. “Will we be going back home soon? I don’t like this place much.”
Wait ’til the tidal buffeting happens again, Sarina thought, and she grimaced at the sight of the unattractive Russian breakfast bowls being handed around. “We have to be patient. I’m sure the Professor knows we’ve been taken away. Grab some breakfast and we’ll go for a wander. We’re on a ship you know—perhaps we can take a look around at our temporary home, and see what we can do to decorate it? Make it better for the rest of the kids. Would you like to do that?”
Lena clapped and jumped up and down, and her phone clattered out of her top. She snatched it up and tucked it away, her eyes flashing a warning to anyone close. “Yes!” She raced off to take a bowl of dubious-looking cereal from a burly Russian.
Sarina turned to Nathan. “Before you ask: it doesn’t work. She told me before she went to sleep it doesn’t have a SIM card.” She looked around the hold. “As soon as she’s had breakfast, I’ll take her exploring this horrible place. You never know, we might find something the kids can play with.” She looked at her two friends. “What are we going to do? We have to come up with something once our Captain hears back from his customer.”
“We stick to our guns. Get the rest of the kids off to safety first, then we tell the truth,” Rona said. “We don’t have the collider, but we have a very good idea where it is. Not that they’ll be able to get it—isn’t that right, Nathan?”
“I guess. Telling the truth is probably the best thing anyway. The machine is as good as locked away, and must be as dead as a dormouse by now.”
Sarina pursed her lips. “Speaking of which, haven’t we missed something obvious?”
“What?” Nathan looked confused. “That thing’s no good to anyone, if it’s where I think it is.”
“Not the collider. Paolo’s world. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before. Why don’t we try to contact Paolo? In fact come to think of it”—she brightened—“why don’t we try to make a portal right here! We could escape from under their noses.”
“Into Paolo’s world? With no way back? And with all these guys tagging along?” Nathan furrowed his brow. “Wait.” He glanced over at the walls, and then overhead, and then back to Sarina. “Not only that, but this place is lead-lined.” He pulled at his lip. “Whoever brought us here knew what they were doing. And knows about Dreamer Kids’ capabilities. This place is one giant Faraday cage. Only instead of stopping unwanted radiation from nuclear waste, it’s perfectly designed to prevent anyone with rem-manipulation power making any outside contact. No wonder they told you they felt trapped in their dreams. It’s an ideal prison for Dreamer Kids.”
She stared at him, but before she could say anything, Lena skipped back. “Finished!” She patted her tummy.
Nathan looked at Sarina and pulled a face. “I don’t know how anyone could eat that stuff.”
“I don’t know how anyone could eat.” Sarina was thankful her stomach had settled. But for how long? She grabbed Lena’s hand. At least distracting Lena would also act as a distraction for her stomach. And her own despair. She looked at Rona and Nathan. “We’re going to explore.” She started to walk off with Lena to the other end of the larger space.
“If you find a secret hatch to the outside, let me know,” Nathan called after them.
“We’ll look for you!” Lena shouted back over the general hubbub from the other kids, most of whom were already playing games Rona had created for them the previous day.
Lena took the lead and dragged Sarina to the furthest corner away, where the light was dim. “Let’s go over there! I bet there’s a secret hatch, don’t you?”
Sarina crept into the corner with the girl, and together they ran their hands down the solid iron wall to the floor. “Hmm, nothing here. I’ll try around the corner.” She moved past Lena and into a hidden nook at the end of the wall. By the look of it, a machine had once stood there, and all that was left were mounting studs poking out. “Be careful if you come around here, Lena. There are rusty lumps of metal sticking up from the ground and out of the wall.” She moved in to the nook, being careful not to snag herself on the ragged metal. A large metal plate stood proud of the wall. She smiled. How funny would it be if there really was a secret escape hatch? She moved closer, picking her way across the uneven floor and threading her way around the old bolt-like rods sticking up from the ground. At the large metal plate—which was a few metres high and a couple of metres across—she could see the small gap between the plate and the wall was filled with something that looked like plasticine or clay. Whatever it was, it wasn’t metal and was arranged in blocks and sections. She leaned closer and pushed a finger into the off-white substance, which yielded like hard putty under her touch. She pinched it together and pulled it away. It was tacky. Some kind of insulating material? It could be useful for sticking pictures on the wall. She rolled the lump around into a ball, and stuffed it into her pocket. A look around the rest of the nook revealed nothing, so she rejoined Lena.
“Any escape hatches here?”
Lena shook her head. “Let’s try the other side.”
They moved over to the other corner of the large hold area and knelt to examine the join between the wall and the floor. Another large metal plate was mounted over the existing wall, with the same putty-like substance between the plate and the wall, arranged in block sections just like the other side. “Ooh,” Lena said. “Is this plasticine?”
Sarina nodded. “I think so. How about we pull some out. The other kids might be able to make something with it—I thought we could use it to stick up pictures and make the place look nice.” Anything to distract the other kids, who she was sure would not maintain the incredible calm they had shown so far for much longer. Together they pulled out great lumps of the stuff, until they had enough to fill both hands and could carry no more.
“Let’s go back. We can give it to Rona, and then come back and get more.”
Lena nodded. “Beat you there!” She ran off.
Sarina laughed, and wondered how long it had been since she last laughed. Her grand plan to persuade the Captain had fizzled; their suggestion they knew where the collider had yet to bear fruit, and she still had no idea if they were any closer to being rescued or released. Perhaps if they could sneak up on deck and see if Rona—or Lena’s—mobile phones could get a signal? She shook her head. What was she thinking. They were hostages, locked away deep inside some old Russian freighter, and that was that.
In the distance, she could see Nathan peering at the putty in Lena’s hands. He bent down and sniffed it for a few seconds, then recoiled and looked over at Sarina with a horrified expression. She was walking back to them when Nathan held up a hand for her to stop where she was. He took the putty from Lena and made his way over to her.
“Um, please don’t say anything out loud. Two things: One, I need to know where you found this, and two, you’re going to take it back with me very carefully. No sudden movements. Okay?”
A wave of shock rippled through her. “What do—”
“Shhh. Lead the way. Say nothing, just be calm.”
Be calm? All very well for you to say, Nathan. What’s the problem? Why the furtive instructions? She stared a moment, then turned back to
where they had come from, holding the putty out in front of her in both hands. They stopped in front of one of the metal plates. “What now? Shall I stuff it back in?”
“NO!” Nathan said quickly. “Put it down very carefully. I’ll do the same.”
She did as he asked, and he followed suit. Then he straightened and peered at the plate. He walked around to the other side and looked up and down. He let out a low whistle.
“What is it, Nathan? I’m not a mind reader you know.”
He pointed up to the top of the plate. “Come here and look up.” She followed his pointed finger up. “Do you see those wires?”
She nodded. “I thought this was some putty sealant stuff. What are those things?”
He looked at her with a pained expression. “They’re detonators. This entire plate is stuffed with packets of PE4. Plastic explosive. Enough to blow up about two houses I’d say—certainly a very big hole in this freighter.”
Sarina felt the blood drain away from her face. “Four houses. Or two big holes.”
Nathan creased his brow. “Huh?”
She pointed over to the dim nook. “There’s another one identical to this around the corner.”
Nathan paled.
~ 26 ~
Explosive News
Sarina had agreed: They should walk back to Rona and Lena and maintain as normal an appearance as possible. As if nothing had happened. It was all very well to try to act like that outwardly, but on the inside her mind whirled. Had the world gone completely mad? Abducting kids; imprisoning them in a water-born dream-proof sealed container; trying to steal secret inventions and turn them into weapons, and now turning her and her friends into a floating bomb. Sarina’s legs felt like jelly. She hoped if anyone looked closely, they’d see her fixed smile and wobbly saunter and conclude she was seasick, which wasn’t far from the truth. As if to taunt her more, the ship lurched a little, then settled.
“When will the tides batter us again?” She said to Nathan through her teeth and fixed smile. “Won’t that ... stuff blow up if it gets too rough?”
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 77
