by James Phelan
“One moment,” I say, my fingers inching closer and then touching the little golden statue. The figure feels electric to the touch, and I push against it more firmly—
The figure pops out, revealing itself as a handle of some sort.
“Sam!” Cody whispers. “Listen!”
I freeze, listening. Footsteps. The sound of the river fades to silence.
I turn around slowly. Cody is looking deep into the shadows from where we’ve come.
Then there’s a new sound.
Chuckling. Then clapping.
“Sam …”
That voice. Deep, metallic. So predictable now, but always still a shock.
Solaris.
“No matter where you are …” Solaris says, stepping out from the dark into the light of our flashlights. “I will always find you, Sam … anywhere, anytime.”
I look to Cody again, who seems frozen in fear.
No …
I reach out to touch my friend, tapping him on the shoulder. He is frozen in time. The river has stopped, completely suspended in motion.
Just like in the café in New York.
It’s OK. I’m in a dream.
I can control it.
“Sam …” Solaris says, his voice sounding as if it is wrapped around a smug smile. “You really think that you can control this?” Flames dance at his wrists, making me squirm. “You think you’re the master of your dreams …?”
Wake up!
I hold my hands over my ears to stop the voice from cutting into my brain. I shout at him, “I don’t have it! You’re wasting your time!”
“You think this is only about the Gears?” Solaris says.
Wake up! Now!
“Sam, Sam, Sam … you have so much to learn,” Solaris chuckles. “It is so easy to get to you, to feed on your fears.”
WHOOSH!
Fire shoots over my head. I flinch and cower to the ground.
“Ha, ha, HA!” His laugh echoes around the cave, deafening me.
Wake up … wake up … wake up …
“Thank you, Sam,” Solaris says. “For yet again showing me where I have to go.”
Come on, Sam, you’re dreaming, you have to—
WHOOSH!
The fire washes over me and I put my arms over my face to shield myself as the searing heat consumes me, leaving me—
Broken.
03
SAM
BEEEEEEP!
Sam’s eyes flew open and his gaze swung around wildly, searching for the danger that was always there. Instead of fire there were bright blinding lights that cut through the night. A loud horn blazed as an oversized truck rumbled past, its sound deep and rousing.
I’m OK, I’m OK. I’m in a car …
“Hey, sleepyhead …” Tobias said gently. “It’s alright, Sam, you’re with me. It was just a dream.”
“What about everyone else?” Sam stammered, trying to focus. His mind swam with images of Rapha, Xavier and the others fleeing from Stella’s Agents on the bridge in the Florida Keys, of being on the boat with Tobias, and the rocket launcher that had saved the day. “Are they—”
“Don’t worry,” Tobias interrupted. “They’re fine. I checked in and they’re already on their way back to the Academy.”
“Oh wow, that’s good news,” Sam sighed. “And where are we?” he asked, sitting up, groggy, finally rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He was bathed in sweat. They were in a sedan, driving on a highway through the darkness. Sam was so disoriented by the impact of his nightmare, it took him a moment to remember the previous day—abandoning the Agents’ boat at the wharf and continuing their trip in a rental car.
“Just coming up to Amarillo, Texas,” Tobias said. “We’ll stop for a bite and call the Academy again, refuel the car … and me.”
“And me!” Sam’s stomach rumbled to accentuate the point.
“Then we start heading north, up to Wyoming and Montana, right on through to Washington State.”
“And on to Vancouver,” Sam said, remembering their objective.
Lora and Eva were last spotted there and we have to help them—rescue them first, then find the Dreamer.
“Back to our old home town.”
Tobias nodded and yawned.
He’s been driving nonstop while I’ve been sleeping.
“Maybe we should stop someplace for longer,” Sam said. “So you can rest.”
“I’m good, I can keep on driving,” Tobias replied. “I’ll take power naps at truck stops as I need them. I’d feel safer if we kept moving.”
“No one’s followed us?” Sam checked over his shoulder and out their rear window. It was impossible to tell if any of the headlights were sinister or not.
Tobias’ eyes flicked to the rear-view mirror. “Nope.”
“I can drive you know,” Sam told him.
“You can drive?” Tobias said. He yawned again.
“Yep.”
“You’re fifteen.”
Sam nodded, before adding, “Well, I can’t drive, you know, officially. But Bill’s uncle let us drive on the farm all the time—an old pickup, the tractor, quad bikes …”
“Well, there you go,” Tobias said, looking more awake with the news. “That’s something I never knew about you. Interesting—and illegal, I might add.”
“Great, I can save the world but I can’t drive a car …” Sam smiled and then looked wistfully out his window, memories of his old school friend Bill prompting thoughts of his former life. “Hey, you always knew that my parents were Enterprise Agents, didn’t you?”
Tobias nodded.
“Think they’re still in Vancouver?”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry,” Tobias said. He glanced over to Sam. “Why? Do you want to find your parents? Have you asked the Director about them?”
“Yes, no, I mean, I haven’t asked yet. I think I was afraid to. Alex has been with his mother this whole time, but no one ever mentioned my parents so I figured it was better not to know if they didn’t want to see me or something. But I … I’d like to know,” Sam said. “I mean, you know—if they were, well, if they really think of me as their son …”
They drove on in silence for a few minutes. There was the faintest glow of sunrise sneaking up behind them.
Sam checked his watch—it was almost five in the morning. “You drove right through the night,” he said. “You must be tired.”
“Yes,” Tobias replied, “we’ve been driving about twelve hours, but I’m OK.”
“Where are we again?”
“Pulling into a gas station,” he said, turning off the highway.
“I mean—”
“Amarillo, Texas. I grew up around here.” Tobias parked the car in front of an all-night diner and killed the engine. “Come on, let’s get breakfast. And some coffee.”
Sam got out into the crisp morning air, self-consciously holding tight to his backpack containing Rapha’s and Maria’s Gears. Tobias walked into the diner. Sam looked around the lot, empty but for a couple of big trucks, then back at Tobias who took a seat in the booth by the big glass window and waved at Sam to join him. Sam smiled and nodded. He caught his reflection in the windows as he stopped for a massive truck driver coming outside. His image was puny in comparison.
And I’m the last hope for humanity?
Sam sighed and pushed open the diner door.
04
ALEX
“It’s been quiet for a while,” Alex said.
“Too quiet,” Phoebe said.
Alex watched as their commander, Rick, pressed his ear to the door, waiting for some sound.
They sat in a locked room in the underground complex of the abandoned government facility in Vancouver.
“The government really was part of this?” Alex asked. “They allowed this to happen?”
“Yes,” Phoebe replied. “This site was part of an old program run by the US government before it was shut down along with sites in Australia, the UK and Hong Kong. Their
combined research ended up going to the private company that took over when the government pulled out—the Enterprise.”
“Hmph,” Alex said. “You think they’re still out there?” he asked, referring to Stella and her men.
“It’s possible,” Phoebe said. “How’s the arm?”
“Fine,” he replied, looking down at the makeshift splint on his busted forearm. “Wish it had been a bigger cut, something to leave a real scar.”
“What?”
“It’d be cool.”
“A huge scar would be cool?”
Alex nodded. His mother shook her head.
“So,” Alex said, getting to his feet and working out the cramps from sitting on the cold, tiled floor. “How do we get out of here?”
“The way we came is the only way in or out,” Rick said. “We gotta sit tight until someone comes to get us.”
Alex went over to the heavy steel blast door that had shut them into the labs when they disabled the mechanism. It had seemed like a good idea when they were being chased by men with guns. Now it was a prison of their own making. He rummaged through the abandoned scientific instruments strewn across the desks around them—test tubes, Bunsen burners …
Aha! So they must also have something to light these.
He began pulling open drawers, one after another, until he found a packet of matches.
“Eureka!” he said.
“Great,” Phoebe said. “We can start a fire. Cook up some textbooks.”
“Mom, please, don’t mention food,” Alex groaned in protest, his stomach grumbling as he lit a match. The flame flickered and danced. He could see it was being pulled and pushed ever so slightly by an imperceptible breeze. “Mom, look …”
Alex held up the match. He walked around the room, until he was standing closer to where the breeze was strongest against the tiny flame.
“Alex!” she said, getting to her feet. “You’re a genius.”
Alex walked around a tall set of cabinets and then, lighting another match as the first died out, saw where the air was coming from—a huge grill set into the roof.
“An air vent!” Alex said. “And where there’s air …”
“There’s a way out!” Phoebe said. “But we can’t scale a vertical air shaft without climbing gear.”
“Leave it to me, Mom, leave it to me.”
05
SAM
Sam joined Tobias in the roadhouse diner and they ordered breakfast. The friendly waitress brought Tobias the first of his bottomless cups of coffee as Sam gulped down a large glass of water.
“Wow,” Sam said, wiping his mouth after refilling his glass for the third time. “I didn’t realize how thirsty I was.”
Tobias smiled. “So, want to tell me about your dream, the one you had in the car?”
“Do we have to talk about it now?” Sam asked.
“You tell me. Do we have to?”
Sam was silent, then sighed. “Yeah, we do.”
He looked out the window, into the lonely parking lot, reluctant to delve back into the details of his latest terrifying encounter with Solaris.
“You know, these Gears,” Sam said, nodding toward his backpack beside him, “they make them worse—the nightmares, I mean. It feels different when I dream, like they supercharge everything I’m seeing.”
Tobias nodded. “That’s consistent with what we have been noticing at the Academy. Being close to the Gears seems to have a strong impact on the dreams of the last 13 Dreamers. And, like all of this, I’m sure it affects you most profoundly of all.”
Sam rolled his eyes and said, “Great.”
“Just imagine being on the other side of all this,” Tobias said, sipping his coffee. “When we’ve found all the 13. When we’ve built da Vinci’s Bakhu machine, putting all the Gears together in the right order. When this amazing machine has led us to the Dream Gate that Ramses controlled …”
“If,” Sam challenged. “If we find all the 13. If we get all the Gears.”
“Sam,” Tobias said kindly, “you must stay hopeful. Hope is our best ally of all.”
Sam looked at his old teacher, always trying to help, to keep Sam safe and on track and … happy. Finally, Sam pushed his glass away. “Alright, then—when all that happens, that’s going to be a pretty good day.”
Tobias laughed.
“Though I’ll probably have to go back to school then, right?”
Tobias laughed again. “You like school.”
“Well, yeah, I guess.”
Tobias smiled as the waitress brought their order.
Sam watched her walk back across the diner and glanced at the other people around them.
“Do you think Solaris is a man?” he asked suddenly.
“A man?” Tobias raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Well, a man or a woman, but I mean, a person.”
“Yes, of course I do. I don’t think Solaris is some mythical creature or some kind of robot. I think behind that mask is someone as real as me and you, acting out their part of the prophecy and somehow linked to the 13 via your dreams. Perhaps they are pure evil, but perhaps not. My experience of the world tells me that too much power can change who someone is, even those with the best intentions.”
“You think you could go all Solaris on us?” Sam said, trying to lighten the mood again.
Tobias smiled, sipped his coffee, kept watch out the window. “It doesn’t take much for good people to do bad things.”
Sam stared at his breakfast, the words rolling around in his head. Then he said through a huge mouthful, “Is anyone looking?”
“Huh?”
Without warning, Sam changed his Stealth Suit to resemble the hoodie and jeans he’d last worn in New York. Tobias looked around—the few truckers and early morning travellers sitting in booths and at the counter didn’t seem to notice the sudden transformation.
“Sam, we are trying to remain inconspicuous. You have to be careful in public,” Tobias said, his own Stealth Suit changing appearance ever so slightly from a charcoal coloured T-shirt under a dark green woollen cardigan to a black T-shirt and a dark blue cardigan.
“Wow,” Sam said with mild sarcasm, “you’re such a daredevil.”
Tobias’ T-shirt changed to a vivid yellow and purple tie-dye and they laughed. Then he changed it again, this time to one with a lame science joke on it:
WHY CAN’T YOU TRUST ATOMS?
BECAUSE THEY MAKE UP EVERYTHING
“Really?” Sam said.
“Not funny?”
“No. Not even on the Tobias Cole lame joke scale.”
“You should have paid more attention in science class, then you’d get it,” Tobias said, chuckling. “Anyway, enough distractions. Shall we discuss your dream?”
Tobias’ phone began to vibrate on the table between them, the screen showing the name of the caller: LORA. Before answering the call, Tobias plugged in earphones and passed one of the earpieces to Sam.
“Lora!” Tobias said quietly. “You OK?”
“We’re fine,” she replied. “And we’ve got news.”
“Where are you?”
“Seattle.”
Sam looked to Tobias, both of them realizing their road trip had just been re-routed.
“We had to leave Vancouver,” Lora explained. “It wasn’t safe to stay there.”
“OK,” Tobias said. “We’re on our way.”
“What? Where are you?” she asked.
“Texas,” Sam replied, “headed overland to you.”
“No need. We’ve got a Guardian flight touching down here in a few hours to take us back to the London campus,” Lora said. “We can fly to you, pick you guys up. Sam, have you had your next dream?”
“Yes,” Sam said, to both of them. “I was somewhere in the Grand Canyon National Park, with someone called—”
“Don’t say any more over the phone,” Lora said. “But from what you just mentioned, you should stay in the US and not travel back to London
with us. Seems the next Gear is near.”
“Agreed,” Tobias said, “but we’ll need a dream machine to get every detail.”
“I can have Guardians bring one to your location, they’re probably six hours away,” Lora said.
Tobias looked at Sam over the table and a smile formed in his eyes.
“You know what, I can do one better than that,” Tobias said, as though a realization had given him a jolt of energy. “I’ve got the perfect place to go. We’ve got this—call us when you get back to London.”
“OK,” Lora replied, her voice a little unsure even though she trusted Tobias. “I’ll have a Guardian team on standby at Dallas airport to hang tight with a helicopter, ready when needed.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Tobias said.
“Lora,” Sam said before the call was ended. “Can I speak to Eva?”
“She’s asleep,” Lora said. “We’re in a hotel right now, and she crashed as soon as her head hit the pillow.”
“OK, next time.”
“Talk soon and good luck,” Lora said, ending the call.
“So,” Tobias said, eating his breakfast, “think you’re OK to drive on dirt roads?”
06
EVA
Eva woke with a sigh and a stretch, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes. Lora was sitting on the end of the other bed in the twin room, watching the news.
“Hey there,” Lora said. “Sorry if I woke you.”
“It’s fine,” Eva said. “I was sleeping like a log. You can turn the TV up if you want.”
Lora bumped up the volume. A story was running on CNN about climate change, with politicians debating whether taxes would curb pollution.
“I don’t know why they don’t just leave the whole climate debate out of it,” Lora said, watching the world leaders walking out of a summit meeting. “Just keep it simple, you know? If you pollute the world, you pay. That’d clean things up.”
“Yeah, makes sense,” Eva said, padding over to the kettle. “Maybe after this race, that can be our next challenge—trying to convince some of these people.” She jabbed a thumb in the direction of the TV.
“Perhaps,” Lora replied and smiled at the thought. “Did you dream just now?”
“A little,” Eva said. “A nice one actually, about my parents.”
