The Dream Awakened

by Leann M Rettell

  “I’m here. I see you all on the traffic cams. It’s distant, but I can make you out. You need to go down the hill and cross through the bushes.”

  Makir, Nimue, and Aelia disappeared, leaving Malcolm behind as they sped into super speed. “Gab, where you at?” Aelia asked.

  “Shit,” Makir said through the comm. “I forgot. His speed is on the fritz, too. We’ll wait for you.”

  “No. This is perfect,” Halek said. “Makir and Aelia can go on ahead. Nimue, double back for Gab. Makir and Aelia can clear the path and create a distraction, drawing the majority of the sentinels away from Professor Fischer.”

  Before Halek had finished speaking, Nimue popped up beside him. “Gab and Nimue, I want you both to head to the opposite side. Nimue, carry him, this section puts you out front.”

  Nimue brushed some sap from off her saturated pink blouse. Her navy-blue pants were splattered with mud, and she wore six-inch stiletto heels with a dusting of rhinestones. “Thank goodness. Those bushes were twenty-foot-high Leyland cypress trees.”

  Malcolm gestured over her body. “Not exactly battle gear.” Not that his blue jeans, tennis shoes, and baby-blue polo shirt were any better.

  “I wasn’t expecting to go into the battle when we left the hotel.” Each word came out clipped. Without another word, she grabbed him. A second later, they stood outside a blacked-out glass door on the side of an industrial building. He fought the vertigo and rechecked his weapons.

  “Makir and Aelia, enter the building. You’re going to have three men right away. Two on the left, one of the right. Take them out.”

  Three cracking gunshots were heard seconds later. He wanted to feel guilty over ending their lives instead of disabling them, but he knew what kind of men these were from Tremblay’s memories. “Perfect, more are headed your way.”

  Malcolm listened through the comm as Halek directed the two women through the building, turn by turn, as he counted the number of men they shot. When he hit number eleven, Halek gave them the go-ahead.

  Nimue stormed through the door, leading as Malcolm followed. They jogged through the empty passageways while Halek controlled the two groups. Distant gunshots and screaming echoed through the building. Malcolm’s chest burned with the effort.

  They made it down to the third subfloor before spotting anyone. Nimue pulled the trigger before Malcolm registered the man hiding in the corner. The body slumped to the side, a pile of urine underneath it with a fast-spreading pool of blood. Malcolm shook off the image and headed toward the center of the building.

  “Okay Gab, the only way down to the sixth subfloor is the central elevators. Makir and Aelia have kept the attention off you, but once you get in the elevator, all attention is going to come toward you. Fischer has four men guarding him.”

  Malcolm pressed the down button, taking the moment to catch his breath. The elevator door opened. They stepped inside. As the doors began to shut, a man appeared in front of them. Without a word, the stranger pointed a gun.

  Nimue shoved him out of the way. He ducked his head. Four shots rang out. The sound bounced off the small elevator space. A high-pitched ringing buzzed in his skull. He could hear nothing else. Malcolm peered up. The elevator doors remained an inch apart as the man turned the gun on Malcolm. Before he could react, blood sprayed from the man’s head. Who had shot the man, he didn’t know.

  The door closed. Malcolm looked down to find Nimue collapsed, eyes gazing toward the ceiling. A bullet hole in her forehead made a stark contrast to her pale skin. It passed at a sharp angle and had exited from her temple. Blood pooled around her head, but the hole had already begun to knit itself back together. She had three other gunshot wounds: two in the chest and one in the belly. Malcolm hit the down button, not wanting anyone else to catch him unawares. He crawled nearer and checked her other wounds. They too inched back together. At least she wouldn’t regenerate. She wouldn’t be any help at her regen spot in Mexico.

  Malcolm hid himself to the side of the doors. “Halek, where do I have to go?”

  Halek’s voice returned muffled. The ringing still echoing in his ears. Great. He’d have to proceed without Halek’s intel. “I can’t hear anything. Nimue has been shot. She’ll take a while to heal. Makir and Aelia, I need one of you ASAP.”

  The doors opened, and the building went dark.

  Fuck! He’d be going in deaf and blind. The only way to the sub-floors was through the elevators. The assholes had cut the power to the building. He was all alone.

  He slid out of the elevator, touching the wall. He did his best to control his breathing. He kept the Beretta in front of him with his right hand, while he used the left to feel along the wall. He had no idea if he was going in the right direction. He reached the end of the wall, which turned to the left. When he skimmed along the edge, the singularity inside him screamed. He threw himself to the right. He rolled, landing on his feet and shot upward, gun pointed, and squeezed the trigger. The light flashed once, twice. It illuminated a man wearing night-vision goggles. The man took both bullets to the chest. The hallway descended into darkness again.

  The ringing worsened with the new onslaught to his fragile ears. He hadn’t considered taking earplugs. He’d never needed them before. He scrambled toward the man awkwardly with the Beretta still in his hand. His hand plunged into a warm, wet, sticky puddle. Malcolm jumped back, fighting off a shudder. He forced himself to feel along the still-warm body and yank off the goggles from the man’s head. He slipped them on. Right away he caught movement to his right. He lifted the pistol and shot.

  A muffled scream reached him as he watched the man grab at his thigh, falling to his knees. He took careful aim and squeezed the trigger again. The man’s head snapped back, and he collapsed with his skull bouncing against the hard floor.

  Malcolm waited for three heartbeats, ensuring the man wouldn’t rise again. Returning his focus on the dead man beside him, he removed the man’s protective headphones. Little good they would do him now. He wiped the slippery blood off his hands. He stood. Crap. Now which way?

  The singularity inside him tugged. He took off at a run, following the hallway, twisting and turning. At each intersection, the singularity pulled him, telling him which way to go. It shivered, and he slowed. He inched around a corner and spotted Jim tied to a chair, a dirty rag taped to his mouth. Tremblay’s memory of the fresh blood, busted lip, oozing eye, and broken fingers flashed. Two men stood around him wearing night-vision goggles. One had an assault rifle raised. The other had a pistol and something else. Malcolm prepared to move when he spotted something different around Jim’s chest. A bomb.

  Fuck!

  The man on the right held the detonator. Explosives were not Malcolm’s area of expertise, but if the movies were anything to go by, he’d guess that if the man let go of the trigger, they would all blow.

  “Gab? Can you hear me? Gab?” Halek’s voice came to him as if from far away.

  Malcolm faced away from the men. He covered the mouthpiece with his hand, grateful for the others’ superb hearing, and whispered, “Barely.”

  “Great. I’m doing everything I can to restore power. It’ll be two minutes.”

  A plan began to form. “I need Makir or Aelia.”

  Makir said, “We’re about to slide down the elevator cable.”

  Malcolm smiled, relaying his plan.

  Less than ten minutes later, Malcolm waited for Halek to switch on the power with the goggles removed and his Beretta aimed. Lights blazed to life. The two men screamed as the light pierced through their goggles. Malcolm squeezed two shots into the man without the detonator. At the same moment from the other side of the room, Aelia fired at the other man. Makir sped forward in super speed, slicing through the man’s hand.

  In less than twenty seconds they’d ended the last threats that remained. Jim squeezed his eyes together and screamed through the gag.

  Malcolm stepped up beside him, kneeling down. “It’s okay. We’re here to rescue you.”


  Halek talked Makir through deactivating the explosive device. Aelia went to check on Nimue. While Makir worked, Malcolm yanked the tape around Jim’s chin, and hair from the days-old beard came off with it. Jim spat the saliva and blood-soaked gag from his mouth. “Thank you. Thank you,” Jim tried to say, but his voice cracked from long hours of screaming and no water.

  Malcolm undid the bindings around his wrist, noting a fractured arm. Tremblay’s memory of smashing it with rebar popped up in his head. He shook it off, not liking this new ability of his.

  Makir slashed through the last of the wires, and the little blinking lights turned off. They all breathed a sigh of relief.

  Malcolm straightened, feeling very, very tired. “Halek, how’s Nimue?”

  “I’m fine. Why don’t you all bring Professor Fischer up to the lobby? I’ll examine him there. I think all of us want nothing more than to get the hell out of this basement.”

  Malcolm and Makir carried Jim who wasn’t able to walk due to a busted knee. The man screamed and faded into a semi-unconsciousness. Makir raised an eyebrow. “Best thing for him, if you ask me.”

  Malcolm didn’t disagree.

  At the lobby of the building, they laid Jim on the floor, and Nimue bent down to examine him.

  “It stopped raining.” Aelia gestured with her head and walked through one of the doors. Makir and Malcolm followed her.

  Outside, Malcolm tipped his head to stare at the still gray sky, sighing, wanting nothing more than to sleep for a week. He felt it in every inch of his semi-human body. How humans did this, he couldn’t fathom. “Now what?”

  Makir lifted her lips in a wicked smile. “Now we call Detective Robinson.”

  44

  Makir stood with Detective Robinson, filling him in, or debriefing him to use her words, on why he’d been called in to clean up their mess.

  Aelia smirked. “How can she call twenty dead bodies in an abandoned warehouse a mess? As if she spilled some milk.”

  Malcolm nodded, wrapping an arm around her, noting how her strength and resolve had already begun to return. Funny what a little payback would do for the soul. “Exactly what I was thinking.”

  Aelia looked up into his eyes, her blue ones shining. “Are we going to be okay?”

  He squeezed her. “Always. We’re family.”

  A shadow crossed over those blue eyes, and he saw Emma and Jadon in his mind’s eye. “Yeah, family.”

  Nimue limped out of the building, no doubt just finishing up with Jim, and at some point, she managed to clean the blood off of her face. She’d long since lost the heels she’d been wearing. The dark blue dress pants flapped with dirty ripped pieces in various places. The silken pink blouse was no longer recognizable with the stains and blood on it, not to mention the bullet holes in the upper chest and abdomen. Her dark hair hung in tangled waves over her back. Stopping beside them, she wiped her hands over her shirt, glaring at Makir. “He’s stable. Needs to spend the night or two in the hospital for evaluation, but he’s not in any immediate danger. He might need a few surgeries to mend the broken bones. I’ve left him sleeping until we figure this out.”

  “Thank you,” Malcolm said.

  “She owes me a new blouse.” Nimue held up a finger. “No. She owes me an entire new outfit. Including heels. Those were Louboutin.”

  Halek said through the comm, “Why would you spend a grand on shoes?”

  “Not the point, Halek. She didn’t get me a vest.”

  Aelia smiled and gestured to her chest. “You healed.”

  Nimue whipped around. “You didn’t get shot! You didn’t need the vest. That hurt.” The pain in her voice laced through the last word. Malcolm guessed it’d been a long, long time since Nimue put herself in any kind of danger, save for targets. Makir, as if sensing her whining, winked at her. Nimue growled, actually growled. Malcolm suppressed his smile.

  The rental SUV pulled into the parking lot. Robinson reached for his weapon, but Makir stopped him.

  Debbie jumped off the SUV’s running board, ran toward Malcolm, and threw herself into his arms. “You’re okay! What happened?”

  Malcolm let her go as Robinson stomped toward them. “You people shot up a building full of people and left the scene of an accident involving a Liam Tremblay. A traffic cam shows a vehicle with a striking resemblance to this SUV chasing his vehicle and leading to his crash. I’m sorry to say he didn’t survive. That leaves all of you guilty of, at least, manslaughter.”

  “That guy was a total douche.” Makir shrugged.

  “And that gives you the right to kill him?” Detective Robinson’s voice rose an octave.

  Makir tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “That wasn’t our intention, but we could use your help.”

  Crossing his hands over his chest, Robinson asked, “You’re asking me to commit obstruction of justice?”

  “Maybe this will help.” Malcolm offered a hand, opened the singularity, and showed him the mildest of the crimes Tremblay had stored in his memories. Robinson visibly paled. “That was?”

  “Just a taste of Tremblay’s handiwork. Trust me. The world is better off without him.” Malcolm released his hold of Robinson.

  Robinson ran a hand through his hair. He shook his head, trying to clear the images. “You really aren’t human, are you?”

  “Finally, he believes.” Makir crossed her arms over her chest.

  Robinson looked like a man who thought he should be dreaming but wasn’t. “I don’t know what I can do.” Malcolm half expected him to bend over and vomit. “This can’t be happening.”

  Makir cocked her head to the side. “Want me to show you how inhuman I am?”

  The detective burst out laughing, the sound nervous. “Let’s say I wanted to help; what cover-up could I possibly come up with?”

  A ringing phone broke through the silence. Debbie bit her lip and pulled Malcolm’s phone out of her pocket. “It’s Halek.”

  “Put me on speaker,” Halek said through the comm.

  Malcolm took the phone, flipping it on.

  Halek said, “Detective Robinson, I’ve got you covered. You’ll find the files have been sent to your email now. As a great investigator, you have found cell phone pings that corresponded to the same locations as Tara Booth’s and Jim Fischer’s last known locations belonging to a Liam Tremblay. When you followed the lead to his house, he sped off in his Denali. You attempted to follow, but the rain held you up. You caught up, finding the crash site.”

  Halek paused to take a breath. “You were already at the scene. While there, you found this address in an envelope. When you get back to the precinct, you’ll be happy to note this envelope made it into the evidence bag. When you got here, you discovered the murdered bodies and Professor Fischer, still miraculously alive. After my friends leave, you’ll call it in.”

  “This won’t hold up. Who am I going to say killed all these people? What about the traffic cams?”

  “Already taken care of, but I have another gift for you.”

  Robinson lifted an eyebrow. “What sort of gift, because so far you people are nothing but trouble.”

  Makir put her hand on his shoulder. “On the contrary, we’ve disposed of a handful of bad guys in your jurisdic…” a smile played on her lips as she glanced at Robinson’s trousers, “…tion. Brought Tara Booth’s murder into the light and saved Jim Fischer.”

  Halek said, “That isn’t the best part. See, after all this, you decided to check further into Liam Tremblay. You’ll discover, later this afternoon when I send the last of the files to you, that Liam Tremblay is the head of security at Schneider Incorporated. Tremblay has a direct connection to Jeff Wallace, CEO of the company. After a handy search warrant, you’ll find several videos from Wallace’s personal computer containing child pornography and a considerable amount of information on Tara Booth, including encrypted files showing pictures of her torture and dead body in the cabin’s bathtub.”

  Malcolm shuddered, not reali
zing the bastards had taken photos.

  “In addition, you’ll note the company’s finances don’t add up, leading to the discovery that the vast majority of their accounts are international companies with connection to the Moretti Family, one of the world’s largest crime syndicates. Schneider Incorporated is a front for their US money laundering. I’d say we’re going to hand you the biggest bust of your career. Unfortunately, you arrived too late to save the men in this building, except for Fischer. The evidence will link their deaths to a competitor of the Moretti family.”

  Robinson stared at each of their blood-stained clothes. “Is this legit?”

  “Absolutely, but you have to act fast, otherwise your timeline won’t work. Your reports for the Tremblay’s accident and here are set on auto to be submitted. As well as the rest for the bust at Schneider Incorporated. See that? You don’t even have to do the paperwork.”

  Robinson’s mouth set in a thin line. “Fine. Get out of here, on one condition.”

  Makir pinched his butt. “What’s that, sweet cheeks?”

  “Leave my city and don’t come back.”

  The five of them stayed within visual distance and observed until the ambulance’s siren faded from view. Aelia reached across Debbie and patted Malcolm’s knee. “He’s going to be okay.” Physically she was correct, but emotionally, Malcolm wasn’t so sure. The love of his life had been murdered, and he’d been kidnapped by those same monsters and tortured for days for something he had no knowledge of. Tara and Jim were supposed to invest in the Mayer Company that would eventually take over Schneider Incorporated, but perhaps now with Halek’s genius investigation and hacking ability, they wouldn’t have to. The company would be taken down, but how this would affect the future Malcolm didn’t know. He supposed only time would tell.

  Debbie smacked herself in the forehead. “Oh, Obadiah called while you all were in there.”