by V. E. Lemp
“Karen?” asked a slim man with black hair. “Is that you?”
Karen peered into the man’s face. “Lee? Lee Oshima?”
“Yes, it’s me.” Lee’s hair, still glossy as a raven’s wing, was cut shorter than before, and there were lines bracketing his mouth, but he looked much the same. Except for the eyes. Those once merry eyes were now flat and dull.
Karen gave him a smile, hoping to coax a smile in return. “I tried to call you a while back. I was trying to get in touch with all the students involved in our portion of the Morpheus Project, but I could never reach you. Ingrid said you were traveling.”
Lee’s expression remained solemn. “I know. I’m sorry, I was abroad. I meant to call you at the number you gave Ingrid, but just haven’t gotten around to it.”
“What’re you doing here?”
“I heard about a girl missing in the Horned Woods, so I came to see if I could help. Why are you here?”
“I … I know the girl’s uncle.” Karen looked Lee over. “That’s very nice of you. Do you do that often—volunteer for search-and-rescue parties?”
Lee shook his head. “Only in the Horned Woods.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“People disappear here, and reappear. It happens frequently, but no one will speak of it. I keep track of such things.”
“What do you mean, disappear and reappear?”
“Is there somewhere we can go to talk? I don’t want to discuss such things out in the open.”
Karen glanced at Mark, who was still speaking with the officers. “I saw a small gazebo when I drove in. I suppose we could talk there.” She led Lee to the parking lot. “Over here,” she said, heading for a rough-hewn structure that stood at the edge of the woods.
When they reached the gazebo Lee looked around before sitting on one of the wooden benches. “Seems fairly secure.”
“Now what’s this all about, Lee?” Karen leaned against the railing of the gazebo. “Mark Hallam’s niece is missing. Do you remember Mark from the Morpheus Project?”
“Yes, he had something to do with the government, didn’t he? I’m sorry to hear about his niece. Are you two together?”
“Yes.” Karen paused, realizing this was the first time she’d admitted it out loud. “We’re also investigating the Morpheus Project. Trying to discover what really happened. And what’s still happening, I’m sorry to say.”
“Are you looking into Dr. Wythe’s death? Thought you might be. I imagine”—Lee lowered his head—“Dr. Wythe was going to blow the whistle on Vance. And they killed him.” He met Karen’s astonished gaze. “Thought as much.”
“How did you come to that conclusion?”
“Due to my own experience, I suspect every evil of Vance and the Morpheus Project. Murdering Dr. Wythe would fit the pattern.”
“What experience?”
“Abductions. You know, involving little gray men. Alien abductions. I have,” Lee added, bitterness lacing his tone, “rather too much experience with that phenomenon.”
A shiver raced up Karen’s spine. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? “Ingrid told me you suffered from anxiety,” she said haltingly. “But she never mentioned that you believed you’d been abducted.”
“I never told her. She has her own demons. I had no desire to add to her misery.”
Karen was quiet a moment. “When did it happen?”
“It started right after the Morpheus Project ended or, at least, our participation in it.” Lee shoved back the hair from his forehead with one hand. “It seemed quite innocent at first. Just more crazy dreams. But then I found myself in places and couldn’t remember how I got there.”
“Losing time,” Karen said, thinking of Pilar.
“Yes. And I had these flashes of memory. Terrible things.” Lee took a deep breath. “Strange rooms and even stranger events. Me on a surgical table, with things being done to me … Thought it was all dreams, you know, until I noticed marks on my skin. Then I found myself in these woods, waking up without my shoes, without the car I was driving moments before.”
“Have you taken this to the authorities?”
Lee laughed. “Authorities? You mean the ones who look at you like you’re crazy and give you a breathalyzer test and ask you to pee in a cup? Those authorities?”
“So no one would believe you.”
“Of course not. It does sound quite mad, you know.”
“Not to me, not anymore.” Karen sat next to Lee. “I need to tell you something.”
She informed him of all she and Mark had learned, all she’d heard from Myron Tarrow and David Cole. Lee watched her face the entire time. She could see, as she spoke of the Oneiroi and avatars and scientific experiments, that he was alternately shocked and relieved by her revelations.
“It makes sense,” he said, when Karen had concluded her tale. “It really does. All those times I begged for mercy, for understanding, of course they didn’t care. They weren’t capable. Machines,” he said, in wonderment. “Just damnable machines.”
“But controlled somehow by the Oneiroi. So there’s someone, or something, to be held accountable, all the same.”
“Yes, an accounting should be made.” Lee sat in silence for a moment before turning to Karen and laying his hand over hers. “I’m in a group. A group of other people who’ve experienced what I have. We meet every month. We help each other, you know? No one else seems to understand.”
“I’m glad you have that support, Lee.”
“Well, I was thinking … Strange things happen around these woods. More than one of us has woken here, alone and missing time. When you find Mark Hallam’s niece, if she appears to need more help than the counselors can provide, I can offer her a place in the group. Only if she needs it, of course.”
“Of course.” Karen sucked in a breath. The thought of Amy suffering as Lee had obviously suffered terrified her. “Very sweet of you, Lee.”
“Not at all.” He pulled a business card from his pocket. “Call me anytime.” He held out the card.
Karen stuck it in her pocket and handed him one of her own cards. “You said you’re in a group, Lee. Do you think …?” She hesitated, searching for the right words. “If someone were opposing these beings and seeking to reveal the truth, would you or your friends be willing to help?”
“I would. I can’t speak for the others, but I imagine most of them would agree. To fight back …” Lee’s eyes, so dull before, brightened, bringing to life the student Karen remembered. “I’m willing to do anything for that. I have children, you know. Three daughters.” His smile told Karen all she needed to know about his love for his girls. “I worry about them constantly. I don’t want them to experience what I’ve experienced. Don’t want them to be taken. I’d do anything, anything to prevent that.”
“I must get back to the search, but I appreciate your candor.” Karen stood. “If there’s anything I can do for you, please let me know.”
“Let me help fight them.” Lee stood, too, and faced her. “That’s all I ask.”
“If it comes to that, I’ll call for your support.” Karen shook his hand. “I promise.”
“You have it. Whenever you ask.”
When Karen left Lee in the gazebo and made her way back to the search site, Mark was still conferring with the police. Karen pulled out her cell and dialed a number she’d memorized.
Myron Tarrow answered immediately. Karen briefly informed him of the situation and asked to speak to Ariel.
“I wondered if you could help me,” Karen said when the girl came on the line.
“I’ll certainly try.”
“It’s Mr. Hallam’s niece. Did your father tell you that Mr. Hallam and I are working together?”
“Yes. Something’s wrong with his niece … She’s been taken somewhere, I think?”
She already knew. Karen swallowed. “She’s missing. Her name’s Amy, and she’s about your age. I thought you might be able to help locate her.”
“I promise to meditate on that,” Ariel said, “as soon as we say goodbye. I’ll call you immediately if I pick up anything.”
“Thanks, that would be great.”
Myron Tarrow came on the line then and requested Karen’s location. “I’m bringing Ariel to you,” he said.
“Oh no, you don’t have to do that.”
“I’d like to. It may help.” There was a short pause before he continued, “The girl’s Ariel’s age, I believe?”
“She’s fourteen.”
“We’ll be there as soon as possible,” Tarrow said.
Karen pocketed her phone and joined Mark. “Have they found anything?”
Mark gave her a sharp look. “Where have you been? I thought you’d disappeared as well.”
“I was talking to someone. Do you remember Lee? Lee Oshima, from the Morpheus Project?”
“Of course. The architect.”
“He told me something interesting. I’ll fill you in.”
“It’ll have to be later. We’re forming a search line. We’ve enough volunteers now. They’re gathering soon, if you’d like to participate. I’ll be walking ahead with some of the officers.” He glanced down at her. “I’ll meet up with you after the first pass.”
Karen took hold of one of his hands. “It’ll be the first and last. She’ll be found soon.”
“I certainly hope so.” Mark lifted their entwined fingers and kissed the back of her hand. “Don’t disappear on me again.”
“I’ll try not to. Look, they’re lining up now. I’ll see you shortly.” She gave Mark’s hand a final squeeze. “We’ll find her, Mark. I know we will.”
“I know,” he said, but his voice was filled with doubt.
Karen joined the human chain forming on the edge of the woods. She glanced to her left and saw, several heads down, sunlight flash off Lee Oshima’s black hair. One of the police officers stood in front of the group and shouted instructions. Mark, deep in consultation with a small group of investigators, walked into the woods ahead of the volunteers.
The search line moved forward into the grove of trees. Karen glanced left and right to match her pace to the others’.
They walked without speaking for some time, the only sound the crunch of boots on fallen leaves and the crack of low branches breaking as the row of searchers moved steadily forward. Karen kept her eyes on the area directly in front of her as she had been instructed, until a strange noise made her glance over her shoulder. A dark form crossed behind the line. The hair on Karen’s arms lifted, and she stopped in place. The rest of the searchers walked on without noticing she’d fallen behind.
Karen turned and scanned the shadowed trees and thick undergrowth. The dark form moved again, off to her right, and she followed as quietly as possible. The figure was leading her away from the other volunteers, into an area they’d already searched. Karen trailed the mysterious stranger into a small circle where the tree canopy opened up to the sky. As she stepped into the dappled light of the clearing, the dark figure turned. It was no surprise, at that point, for Karen to recognize the face staring back at her.
“Karen Foster,” said the woman who called herself Alice. “It has been some years.”
Alice hadn’t aged. That alone would’ve been enough to prove what Tarrow and Cole had told Karen was the truth. The odd dark eyes of the other woman regarded Karen with interest.
“What are you doing here, Alice?” Karen stepped forward. “Why’d you lead me here?”
“I am offering my assistance. We are fighting on the same side, Karen Foster.”
“Are we?” Karen faced down the avatar of some unknown member of the Oneiroi. “I do know what you are, Alice.”
“I see. So David Cole saw fit to inform you of our secret? He does like to walk on the edge.”
“You know David Cole?”
“Yes, we are old acquaintances. He can be difficult, but I confess to have a soft spot for the man. I have even tried to counsel him in the past, but he is, I’m afraid, quite stubborn. He rarely listens to me.”
“At any rate,” Karen said, mentally reevaluating David Cole’s importance in the Exocorp hierarchy, “I’d like to know how you can help me. Can you find a missing girl?”
“Amy Ledford? Mark Hallam’s niece? I am attempting to bring her home as we speak. I have already been in communication with those who are holding her.”
“Where is she?” Karen lunged forward, but Alice held up her hand, stopping Karen in her tracks. She had every intention of moving closer to the woman, but it was as if she’d lost the will to put one foot in front of the other.
“She is safe at this moment,” Alice said. “I have been in contact with those who have taken her. It was not their choice to do so. They usually operate randomly, rarely under specific orders. In this case, it appears orders were given.”
“By whom?” Anger surged through Karen’s immobile body. “Ian Vance?”
Alice regarded her calmly. “Not directly. But I daresay he was involved, somewhere down the line. But Vance is not our primary concern right now. I must get a message to the right contact to have Amy Ledford released.”
“Why?” Karen asked. “Why would you help us?”
“Because I and my … shall I say family? Yes, I think that is the best way to explain it, although hardly accurate. At any rate, my family is, and has been for some time, opposed to many of the practices of my people. We have gained significant authority in our society, which, fortunately, allows me more latitude than Dr. Vance and his compatriots might expect. Exocorp and its backers view us as one united force, you see. This is quite naïve of them. What race of beings would ever be all of one mind? But it suits some of us,” Alice said, with a faint smile, “to allow them to imagine us as they would have us be.”
“You oppose the abductions?” Karen could shift from foot to foot but still felt no desire to take a step forward.
“Yes, we object to all such experimentation. It has gone on long enough, with no justifiable results. It is time to put an end to such things. There are better ways”—Alice shot Karen a significant look—“to acquire information.”
“But others of your kind disagree with you?”
“They do.” Alice closed her eyes for a moment, and a weight lifted from Karen’s body.
She took two steps forward. “So do you have the authority to return Amy to us? Please, if you do, make that happen soon. It’s very important to Mr. Hallam and his family.”
“And Mark Hallam is very important to you. Yes, I know this, Karen Foster. We keep both of you under observation, as you may have guessed. A most useful individual, Mark Hallam. Such a logical mind, yet willing to consider the impossible.” Alice gave Karen a look she couldn’t interpret. “I imagine your friend Mr. Cole is also aware of your relationship?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure what that has to do with anything. Listen, Alice, I’m willing to do whatever you ask in order to bring Amy Ledford home. I’ll beg, if you wish. I’ll even return to the Morpheus Project if that’s your desire.”
“It is not,” Alice said firmly. “As I stated before, we are not all of one mind. Nor are we all pleased to be associated with Ian Vance and his backers. No, I do not require anything of you, Karen Foster. Although I would appreciate your promise to return the favor when I may ask it of you, sometime in the future.”
“You have that promise.”
Alice bent her head in acknowledgement. “Thank you, although I assure you I would have given my help regardless. But you may find that I can be a useful ally. Keep this in mind. Now, join the others and do not despair. I believe I have finally made a connection with those who can assist in this matter.”
“Thank you.” Karen spoke fervently. “I’m grateful for any help you can give. Is there any message I should convey to Mark?”
“No,” Alice said, “he is already on the right path. But you have not yet asked me, Karen Foster, what I know of Alex Wythe. I know you saw me there that day.”
“Only that you are right to question the official reports,” said the Oneiroi’s avatar, “and perhaps many more things. And you should never discount what your dreams may tell you.”
Karen shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“You will soon, I think. And for that, I am truly sorry.”
“Sorry? Whatever do you mean?” Karen rubbed her forehead with one hand. Her head ached from the confusion brought on by Alice’s remarks. She longed to understand, but there was Amy to consider. Getting Amy home was more important than deciphering Alice’s cryptic words.
“I can’t say I appreciate such vague warnings. But for now, if you can return Amy to her family I’ll be satisfied with that.”
“I believe I can do so. Now run back to the others before Mark Hallam misses you.”
Karen paused for a second, deliberating, then turned and dashed into the trees, running until she was once again level with the rest of the searchers. One or two cast her disapproving glances, but Karen simply stepped into the line and kept her head down. When the volunteers reached the opposite side of the woods and walked into an open field, Karen noticed a few people missing from the line. She wondered what had distracted them. Mark was standing a little way off, in a small cluster of police and search dogs. She jogged over to him.
“Anything?”
He shook his head.
“I have some news,” she said, “but we need to talk in private.”
Mark glanced down at her. His dark eyes, shadowed behind the lenses of his glasses, were filled with pain. “Not a good time, Karen.”
“I know.” She laid her fingers over his clenched fist. “It can wait.” His attention was captured by some activity at the tree line.
“It’s Amy!” he said, taking off at a sprint. Two men were carrying a limp form out of the woods.
Karen hung back, allowing Mark to reach the men and take his niece’s body from the rescuers’ arms. Twisting her hands, Karen waited until she saw Mark lower the girl to her feet and stand her upright. The crowd broke into claps and cheers, and Karen ran forward to join the small group huddled at the edge of the woods
