Disciple: DreamWalkers, Book 2

by Jody Wallace

  She stared at him for a long, intense moment. “I feel emotional. Does it show?”

  “Yes.” He took her face in his hands. “I love you, Maggie.”

  Without even a moment’s pause, she answered. “I love you too.”

  “We have to hide it for now,” he cautioned, though he hated the thought of pretending Maggie wasn’t his. “Wait a minute. Lill knows about us, doesn’t she?”

  The memories Karen had erased were trickling back as if he’d never lost them. He couldn’t drum them up individually, but anytime he needed one, it was there.

  “She guessed,” Maggie said. “We’d better get back.” They dressed hastily, smoothing one another’s hair, dusting off each other’s back from where their clothing had been strewn on the ground. He kissed her one last time and they rounded the corner of the building as if they’d merely been for a walk down the westerly road.

  As soon as they rounded the back of the building, a human figure in sweats disappeared around opposite corner, too fast and too far to see who it was.

  Zeke halted. “Hold on.”

  He scanned the ground for footprints, but there were too many to tell if there were fresh ones. Of course, the only footprints heading down the westerly road were Lill and Maggie’s, so if anyone tried to check on his and Maggie’s claim of going for a walk too, they’d soon figure out the lie.

  “That looked like Karen.” Maggie bit her lip. “She wouldn’t be out here unescorted, would she?”

  “No way. We’ve only been gone a few minutes.” Still, he and Maggie had dallied too long. They hustled to the front door, where the guard stood.

  The guard blinked a few times when they approached him. “What are you two doing outside?”

  “We went for a walk,” Zeke said. “We came out, what, twenty minutes ago?”

  The guard frowned and rubbed his head. “Yeah, I remember now. Some kind of sinus thing going around. Everyone’s got headaches.”

  “Did anyone else come outside while we were gone?” Maggie asked.

  The guard, instead of answering right away, which he should have been able to do, checked the entry and exit logs. “No, ma’am.”

  They’d just spotted someone, and it hadn’t been the guard. The figure had worn sweats, while the guard was in the Somnium military’s standard dark trousers, T-shirt and flak vest. Had the person they’d seen not exited or entered the building?

  Or had the person they’d seen confounded the guard?

  “Shit.” Zeke hustled Maggie into the outbunker. He didn’t have the authority to upgrade the alert level himself, but if Karen had seen them having sex or guessed that he’d gotten his memories back, all hell might be about to break loose. “We need to find Adi and Lill.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  No sign of Karen when Zeke returned to the main lounge, although Lill was there, sharpening her favorite sword. The shick shick of the whetstone on the blade could be heard from the corridor.

  If Karen hadn’t seen him and Maggie behind the bunker, Zeke didn’t want to set her off. Maggie had gone to brush her hair. They wouldn’t enter the common room together.

  A quick inspection revealed that Adi and the curator had finished their powwow, because the old man sat in front of the television set, channel surfing. He’d occasionally pause, stare at the screen, and shake his head.

  “I see I haven’t been missing much,” he observed. The other alucinators and soldiers in the room chuckled. Zeke wondered how many had been asked to guard the curator…or to stay away from him.

  Then again, he didn’t know what Adi and the curator had discussed all day. The curator might know everything now.

  Zeke would have to step easy. He had knowledge he needed to impart to everyone as well. How did one announce to a roomful of people who’d been instructed by their boss to humor a psychopath that said psychopath was confounding them all?

  Lill raised her eyebrows at him when she noticed him hovering by the door. “Nice chat?”

  “Interesting,” he said.

  “I didn’t have a chance to speak with Adi.” Lill tossed her whetstone into her kit and sheathed the sword. He noticed she wore it on her hip, though it made sitting awkward. “You look alert, though.”

  “I am.” Zeke tilted his head at the curator. “Should we start there?”

  Lill hesitated before speaking. Her loyalty would be to Adi, considering how she felt about curators. None of Karen’s machinations changed what Adi had witnessed with Karen’s broken bones. The fact that the curators might be hoarding life-saving procedures like rapid healing from the peons had hardened Lill further.

  “No,” she finally answered.

  “And where is, uh…” He popped into the corridor a moment and saw Maggie, her hair brushed and clothes changed, coming down the hallway. “Where’s Karen?”

  “She went to nap, supposedly.” Lill rose. “She’s being accompanied from afar.”

  That meant someone was monitoring her in the dreamspace. It would be Adi or Blake along with a partner to prevent any vigil-trapping. They were the only L5s left in the bunker after Candace and Roberts had been killed.

  Remembering Candace reminded Zeke he’d cruelly asked Lill whose funeral she had to deal with. Karen had confounded that out of him too. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier. About Candace.”

  “I understand.” Lill stretched and rested her hand on the hilt of her sword, her posture deceptively relaxed. She was as tensely strung as he’d ever seen her. “I also understand we can’t put this off any longer. The timetable’s changed. We need to speak now, while Karen’s not—”

  “There you are, my girl,” the curator said heartily.

  Maggie slipped into the common room behind Zeke.

  The alucinator beside the curator helped him rise, and the old man grasped his walker. “I’ve been waiting for you. Are your belongings packed? We’ll have to hustle to catch our flight.”

  “What?” Zeke and Maggie asked at the same time.

  The curator nodded. “It’s quite a drive to the airport. Are you ready?”

  “No, I’m not packed.” Maggie clutched her hands nervously. Zeke tried his best not to glance at her, or stand in front of her and refuse to let the curator steal her. There were things the curator needed to know first, and he wanted to hear it from the curator’s own mouth that Maggie wouldn’t vanish into the Orbis like other recruits, never to be seen again.

  Separation he could handle, but losing her entirely? He couldn’t let that happen.

  “Our departure was announced on the intercom,” the curator said. “Didn’t you hear it?”

  Maggie shifted her weight to the other foot. “I, ah, was getting some air.”

  The curator glanced between Maggie and Zeke. “I see. Well, Ezekiel should probably seek his student while you pack. She appeared to be distraught that Margaret and I were departing.”

  “Because we’re so close,” Maggie said dryly.

  Zeke could think of no reason for Karen to be upset that Maggie was transferring to the Orbis, but she’d wanted the curator to help guard her from the Master. Zeke wasn’t inclined to believe anything Karen claimed at this point, though, so any evidence of distress from her was troubling.

  It could mean she’d witnessed Maggie and Zeke’s encounter and was reacting poorly. It could mean something else entirely, but still worrisome.

  “There’s no reason to be in a rush,” Zeke said. “Flights can be rescheduled.”

  “Actually, there is a reason. I do have another job besides aiding wayward neonati, and by all accounts it’s rather important,” the curator said mildly. “I’ve been on vacation long enough.”

  If this was the curator’s idea of a vacation, Zeke was glad he’d never be upwardly mobile in the Somnium beyond sentry.

  “I should talk to Adi before I go,” Maggie
said.

  “Don’t worry. I’ve cleared your departure with the lovely Adishakti. She has no more need of us here, since she has to concentrate on Ezekiel and his student. Say your goodbyes, Margaret.”

  Maggie turned to him and Lill, countenance pale. “We can’t wait for Adi. We have to tell him.”

  “Tell me what?” the curator asked. Then he smiled. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you? That’s fabulous news. Congratulations.”

  “What? No, I’m not pregnant,” Maggie exclaimed.

  Lill placed her hand over her eyes and shook her head. “They’re not that stupid,” she told the curator.

  The curator smoothed a hand over the few white hairs atop his head. “That wouldn’t be stupid at all. Powerful alucinators seem to run in Margaret’s family. The question would be how to trigger the child at the proper time. An interesting conundrum.”

  The way he phrased it was detached—as if Maggie and Zeke were merely breeders for the cause and their hypothetical child a contribution.

  Zeke scowled. “I don’t know shit about kids, but that seems like a lousy reason to have one.”

  Alucinators who’d become parents, like his area’s other confounder, Paolo, lost their edge. At least in the field. They needed more time off too. Parenting wasn’t that compatible with working for the Somnium.

  The curator shook his head, disappointed. “Then we’ll have to expand our Mackeys some other way. Once Margaret’s in my employ, we’re going to locate her sister and bring young Allyson into the fold. And perhaps any cousins. The family line bears investigating.”

  He trailed off as he gazed at nothing with a fixed, almost trance-like stare. No trance state Zeke knew of, outside of confounding, involved an erect and alert alucinator, and the curator wasn’t touching anyone to confound them.

  Zeke interrupted the curator’s thoughts. “I’m sorry, sir, but you’re going to have to reschedule that flight. There’s something you should know about the past couple of days.” Lill didn’t want to talk to the curator before Adi, but if the old man insisted that he and Maggie leave immediately, he had the authority to order the soldiers to carry out his orders.

  “Can you repeat that? I’ve been off my routine long enough that it’s starting to discombobulate me.” The curator sighed. “The others won’t be happy if I don’t return to my post soon.” He motioned toward one of the soldiers. “Young lady, please fetch Margaret’s possessions. If only we had a company jet, we wouldn’t be subjected to the trials and tribulations of public air transport.” He chuckled. “Alas, my requisition keeps getting denied.”

  “I said,” Zeke repeated, louder, “there’s something you should know about the past couple of days. The three of us believe Karen Kingsbury has—”

  “Karen is missing.”

  The voice belonged to Adi, but not Adi like Zeke had ever seen her. She leaned against the doorjamb, her shining, black hair askew, her cheeks flushed, and a laceration on her forehead. Blood droplets decorated her scrubs top. Blake, behind her, held a semi-automatic in his arms. Several other soldiers stood at attention in the hallway.

  “My goodness, lass, what have you done to yourself?” the curator asked.

  The common room erupted in a storm of dismay. Adi was a favorite, and none of the coma station employees appreciated seeing their vigil wounded and overset. A woman Zeke recognized as the doctor rushed to Adi’s side and began poking at her forehead.

  Adi batted her away. “I’m all right. We must all speak. Wraiths attacked me in the trance sphere, and I regret to say my shield faltered.” The room fell into silence. A vigil with shield failure was practically unheard of, and Adi’s face reddened. “I was forced to abort, and Karen’s signature disappeared. She’s no longer in her room, and we’ve searched the outbunker. There’s no sign of her in this facility, and no one reports noticing her outside her room. I assume no one here has seen her?”

  Zeke and Maggie exchanged a horrified glance. That must have been Karen outside after all. From there, she could have gone anywhere, though she wouldn’t get far on foot.

  “Have you checked the grounds?” Zeke asked. “We may have spotted her outside.”

  Adi shook her head. “She’s not in the exit log, so—”

  “She’s been confounding people,” Lill interrupted. Whatever remained of the noise in the room quieted until Zeke could have heard a rabbit fart. “I shook it off. I presume Zeke has too, since I sent Maggie to shock him out of the fugue. Are you telling me none of you noticed you’d been forgetful lately—blanks in your memories, headaches?”

  “I’d attributed the symptoms to a virus,” the doctor said. “Ms. Sharma, do you believe this to be true?”

  “I’m fucking telling you it’s true,” Lill snapped.

  “Karen definitely forced memories out of my head,” Zeke added. “They’re back now. I can confirm everything Lill’s saying.”

  “Oh, dear,” the curator said. “And you have no idea where the young woman has gone?”

  Unfortunately, there was no way to locate an alucinator outside the sphere beyond standard means. As long as Karen remained in the terra firma, she’d be as hard to find as any fugitive…any fugitive who could erase people’s memories.

  Zeke needed to control this situation before it exploded. “Form search parties. Now. Notify the main coma station of the breach. Karen should be assumed to be armed and dangerous.”

  Adi raised her eyebrows at him. “Are you giving orders to my soldiers, Zeke?”

  Since she hadn’t sounded the alert the moment she’d realized Karen was missing, what was he supposed to do? Sit around and waffle? “Am I wrong?”

  Adi regarded him for a long, cool moment before she motioned for the soldiers. “Blake, see to it. Parties of five. Johnson, notify the main station of our missing patient.”

  Blake and the others assembled immediately, with everyone but Adi, the curator, Lill, Zeke, Maggie and the doctor hustling out of the room.

  “This is unnecessary,” the curator said. “The child is harmless. If I’d gotten a sense of disorder from Karen, I would have alerted you.”

  Adi smoothed a strand of her hair and regarded the curator warily. It wasn’t a friendly expression. “I didn’t realize you’d examined her.”

  “Of course. I examined everyone connected to the code ones as part of standard protocol.”

  “When did these examinations take place?” Adi asked with surprising belligerence. If there was one thing Adishakti Sharma wasn’t, it was belligerent. The past three days would have frazzled anyone.

  “Before I arrived, vigil. Check your handbook, section 3.4.156.” The curator remained unfazed by the fact everyone was staring at him. Vigils and sentries weren’t allowed to assess other alucinators without anyone’s knowledge. “By my calculation, it’s difficult to believe the girl would repeat a Harrisburg now that she’s gotten what one presumes she wanted.” He looked at Zeke.

  The curator had dropped the bomb they were all avoiding. Harrisburg. Despite the old man’s seeming lack of fear, Zeke knew Karen better than any curator.

  “Use all precautions on the search,” Zeke called down the hall at the departing soldiers. “Assume we have an incipient code one on our hands.”

  The curator clicked his tongue. “I don’t believe she has the capacity for that. These long-term coma patients rarely retain their original level of ability.”

  If Zeke got busted out of his sentry position because of insubordination, he didn’t give a rat’s ass. He and Lill had prepared for battle—and he had to figure out the safest place to stash Maggie. What place was safe during an active code one, when wraiths could manifest anywhere?

  “Sir. She’s confounded people, she’s lied, and she has a history of worse,” Zeke pointed out, trying to be respectful. And probably failing. “That doesn’t say deteriorated abilities to me. Considering everyth
ing that’s happened in the past couple days, I hope you’ll believe now that Maggie hasn’t been manifesting the wraiths.”

  “But her conduit blindness.” The curator frowned, his first display of annoyance. “Margaret displays the symptoms.”

  “I haven’t been the one manifesting.” Maggie fiddled with the gun belt at her waist. She’d donned her jeans and weapons holsters—the gun in one side and a knife in the other—when she’d freshened up after their lovemaking. Smart woman.

  The curator was dead wrong about both Karen and Maggie. So much for curators being all-seeing. Or maybe the guy was as senile as he appeared. Even curators had to get too old for their jobs.

  “The wraiths surround you in the sphere,” the curator said. “You confirmed that yourself. That’s indicative of conduit blindness.”

  “There are a few factors you haven’t considered.” Maggie worried her lip with her teeth, and he knew she was wondering how to tell them about being a bellatorix.

  Before she could blurt it out, Zeke offered a different bone for Adi and the curator to chew on. “In Harrisburg, Karen claimed she could control wraiths. She could have been sending them after Maggie somehow. Maggie also entered the trance sphere twice during sessions, and no one could detect her signature. The consensus is that she was camouflaged.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Only seven people in the entire world possess that skill. I should know. I’m one of them.”

  “I didn’t shroud myself, sir,” Maggie said pointedly. She turned to Adi. “Does the curator know about the rest of the irregularities?”

  Adi’s jaw set. “They’re being handled. There’s no need to discuss them.”

  Lill shook her head at her friend. Zeke was disappointed as well. Karen had probably manifested wraiths who’d freakishly eaten entire human bodies during the code ones. Was this the time to be secretive with a curator who might have answers? If they’d been straight with him in the first place, perhaps some of this could have been avoided.

  Then there was the truth about Maggie. Did Maggie’s bellatorix ability play in to this situation or was it a footnote? Would informing the others that Maggie could kill wraiths inside the sphere mean she’d be taken somewhere worse than the Orbis?