Dream Quest

by Неизвестный

"Storm's hit,"Nathan said from a small computer console near the door. "We won't last long out there without the suits."

  "Only if we need them. Nate, check the tunnel."

  Nathan disappeared the way they'd come, and Alex moved to the console.

  "What are you doing?"She moved up behind him.

  "Setting the auto-destruct. We've got fifteen minutes before the rendezvous with BinRal. Whether he's here or not, we'll have to leave."

  "How much time are you giving us to get away?"She wrapped her arms around herself, warding off the cold seeping through the walls.

  "Twenty minutes."

  "Is that enough time if BinRal isn't here in fifteen minutes?"

  "It'll have to be."

  "You may as well turn that off."

  At the sound of the new voice, Alex spun, blaster raised, a strong arm pushing Gina behind him. Nathan stood with his hands up, a blaster to his head, half blocking the figure behind him. The woman in front of Nathan, however, stood in full view with a wicked looking weapon pointed at Alex's chest.

  Gina choked on a curse and clenched Alex's free arm. "Mira?"

  The woman smiled. "Hi, Gina. Surprised to see me? I'm afraid only Barry made the train that day. Lucky me. Thanks for that shout, by the way. Made Louis's job pinpointing the tunnel easier."

  Gina felt her lip twitch with a snarl. All her shock and fear were buried under outrage as she watched a woman she'd trusted point a blaster at Alex. She tried to step around him, but he held her in place with one hand, never taking his eyes off Mira's face.

  Mira laughed, a light, relaxed sound. "Gina, that temper of yours is going to get you killed."

  On a good day, Mira was an attractive woman, maybe a little small, a little too skinny, but she was an exceptional engineer. Until that moment, Gina had liked her and considered her a friend. "You want to try it, Mira? Put that blaster down and face me, and we'll see who gets killed."

  "Face you in hand to hand? You really do think I'm stupid. I heard that in your thoughts, you know. How highly you rank my intellect compared to yours."

  "Is that what all this is about? You think I insulted your intelligence?"

  Mira's face lost all trace of emotion. "I'm paid too well to take this personally, Gina."

  "By who and for what?"Gina tried to move around Alex's arm again but it was like trying to move a steel post.

  "Influential and rich people. Because you should have eliminated the telepathy bug in the M-SIDs."

  "Another corporation?"Alex asked.

  "This is bigger than corporate war. The uncontrolled spread of telepathy through the populous would cause chaos."

  "Government?"Alex's question made Mira's mouth twitch.

  "Influential and rich,"she repeated. "In a position to make sure this telepathy doesn't get out."

  "You got rid of your M-SIDs?"Gina asked. She pushed at Alex's arm again, testing. He didn't budge.

  "I don't have to now."Mira tilted her head. "You should have encouraged your father to sell the technology when he had the chance."

  "Why would I want to do that?"Gina's gaze danced to Nathan and the man, Louis, standing behind him. Louis was watching the scene, smiling slightly, ignoring the mercenary. She made brief eye contact with Nathan, watched his head shake almost imperceptibly in warning. She ignored the warning and dodged in front of Alex before he could stop her.

  Mira jerked the blaster toward her. "Stop."

  "Why? You're going to kill me anyway. I'd rather die fighting than let you subject me to the torture you described in those messages."

  Mira's brown eyes slanted. "What the hell are you talking about?"

  "Gina,"Alex hissed. Taking a step toward her.

  She ignored him and focused fully on Mira's confusion, moving so Mira was between her and a potential shot from Louis, but so that she was blocking Alex from Mira's blaster. "The messages my father's been getting. Detailing the accidents, the torture and death meted out to members of the team."

  "I don't know about any messages. And stop moving or I'll blast a hole in your chest."

  "If you didn't write the messages, why are you here?"

  "To collect on payment due me. I deliver you to my well-funded associates, they hold you for ransom and your father calls off the research. Simple. And I make a lot of money."

  "Your associates aren't going to ransom me, Mira. They're going to torture and kill me."

  "Gina."Alex's voice was a growl now.

  "You don't know what you're talking about,"Mira snapped.

  Gina saw that stubborn look come into Mira's eyes. Recognized it from too many late night arguments in the lab. She switched tactics. "Do you still hear it?"She dropped her voice to a murmur. "That first time, the sounds of so many voices in your head."

  "Shut up. That has nothing to do with this. I'm being trained. I'll never have to suffer that way again. There's a lot of money available to the properly trained telepath."

  "This is all about money for you? You can just ignore the killing?"Mira's stubbornness was one thing, but Gina couldn't understand the woman's willful ignorance. The more she refused to accept the truth, the angrier Gina got. "Didn't you hear about Jack? How your employers tortured him before they killed him? No easy train wreck for him."

  Mira's blaster wavered. "He probably deserved it,"she spit. "He probably didn't cooperate. That's all you have to do, Gina. Cooperate and nothing will happen to you. They're just going to keep you until your scanners destruct and your father agrees to their terms. That'll be the end of it."

  "You can't believe that? Not after Barry and Jack."Gina moved another step forward, keeping Mira's body between herself and Louis. "And what use will you be to them when your scanners destruct?"

  "We've already altered that part of the program in my M-SIDs. After all, I was the one that wrote the time-limited destruct algorithm."

  "Damn it, Gina,"Alex hissed, "get out of the way."She sensed his movement behind her but didn't dare turn away from Mira.

  Louis shifted his blaster from Nathan's head, aiming at Alex over Nathan's shoulder.

  "I wouldn't try anything funny, Mr. Alexander,"Mira warned. "I wouldn't want to have to kill her. Drop the blaster. Now or I'm taking her leg."

  Gina heard the clatter of metal against the stone floor behind her. Mira smiled.

  "Feeling better now, with both men unarmed?"

  "I'll feel better when you shut up."Mira steadied the blaster, clicked it to a high stun setting and aimed.

  Gina prepared to take the shot. It was going to hurt. She couldn't avoid it. But maybe she could give Nathan and Alex a chance at Louis and Mira. She balanced on the balls of her feet, smiled at her former colleague and lunged.

  She tried twisting aside as the blaster bolt arched toward her, but the shot caught her arm and sent her spinning. Air exploded from her lungs. The shot stole any control she had of the lunge, but her momentum slammed her into Mira. They crashed to the floor, Gina a numb heap on top of the struggling woman. She could feel the press of the blaster against her side, even through the parka, but she couldn't move to defend herself.

  The last thing Gina heard before she blacked out was the sound of her name echoing off the walls.

  5.

  Gina? Come on, baby. Come back to me. That's it. Good, girl. You can do it. The litany ran steadily and comfortingly through her mind as she struggled through the blankets tangling her brain. The first thing she noticed beyond the voice was the strange taste of the air. After a moment, she felt the gentle pressure of sensor pads pressed against her pulse points. The sound of wind raged around her, but it was muted and distant.

  She was in a biosuit, outside, in the middle of a blizzard.

  She opened her eyes and launched herself upward. No, you don't. A firm hand eased her back down. "Gina? Listen to me, honey. It's Alex. Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

  She blinked against the white-blue snow and turned to focus on him. He was wearing a biosuit, too. They were out in the middle of w
hat looked like a snowfield in a pocket at the side of a mountain. There was no sign of the tunnel, Mira, Louis, or Nathan. "What happened? Where's Nathan?"

  I can't believe you did that to me, and now all you can think about is Nate. "He's fine. He's with BinRal, and they're on their way. BinRal's ship was sabotaged. That's why he was late."Damn, but I need to kiss you. If you ever do anything like that to me again, I'll wring your neck. "As for what happened..."

  Gina frowned, slowly realizing she was hearing a lot more than he was saying out loud. "I can hear your thoughts,"she whispered, not sure whether the mike in her suit would pick up her voice. It must have because his expression shifted to a different kind of concern.

  "I thought you might. I wasn't sure. I was hoping the scanners wouldn't activate so quickly."

  "Only takes about thirty seconds. And I'd love to kiss you too, but lifting the visor in this weather wouldn't be wise. What happened to Mira and Louis? The house?"

  His thoughts came at her in a tumble of emotions and images that she couldn't sort through and was embarrassed to try after the first few rather graphic images formed. But his thoughts of sex were easier to take than the deep emotions churning in him.

  "I disarmed Mira after you were stunned. Nate had to kill Louis. Unfortunate, since we could've gotten information from him."He shrugged. "We didn't have much time. There were more people in the house, so we had to get out and blow it fast."I wasn't letting anyone else near you. "We put you in the suit to protect you from the weather and the worst effects of the stunner shot. The destruct was down to five minutes by the time we were ready to go."I almost killed that bitch for shooting you. "We tried to get Mira into a suit to bring with us. We were hoping to pump her for more information. She gave us a bit to go on,"thanks to you, "but I suspect the one orchestrating all of this will disappear now."There's no place he'll be able to hide from me. "Mira started screaming when we tried to put her in a 'suit. Went berserk and ran back up the tunnel. She didn't have time to get out before it blew."And even if she had, I'd have killed her eventually.

  "Am I still in danger?"Gina frowned as she tried to sort through the chaos of his spoken and unspoken comments.

  Not while I'm around. "I doubt it. The person or people that bribed Mira don't know what she's told us so they can't risk coming after you again."I'll eat them alive if they think they can hurt you.

  "So, I'm safe as long as you're around?"

  "Yeah. You are."

  "Then, just exactly how long are you planning on being around?"

  "You can read my thoughts? You tell me."

  She closed her eyes, searched through the chaos of images and words, half phrases and feelings. When she found what she was looking for, she opened her eyes and smiled. "That long, huh?"

  Alex smiled back.

  Through The Woods

  by Ellen Edgar

  Ellen Edgar grew up among the haunted castles and cottages of England, where her love for tales of romance with a touch of magic was born. She is coauthor of The Dragon's Horn, a romantic fantasy adventure. Readers may learn more about Ellen at her website http://hometown.aol.com/msellenedgar/index.html.

  "No way will I fall in love again,"I said.

  Jinx regarded me gravely, then went back to grooming his whiskers with one sleek paw.

  The cat and I sat on the back doorstep of our home, a log cabin that looked out over a stretch of rough grass to the woods. I was troubled, wondering if I was wrong, wondering if the solitude I'd valued for so long was truly a good thing. It must be, I told myself. It would be impossible to write if I lived under the constant pressure of other people's needs.

  Jinx yawned, stretched, and sauntered off across the lawn to curl up under the picnic table. From a low branch of the maple tree, a black-capped chickadee cocked its head as the cat passed beneath. A crow that had been digging in the grass cawed indignantly and flapped away to perch on the clothespole. Jinx ignored both of them.

  I wished I could ignore my mother's chiding as easily. It drove her crazy to think of me holed up with a half-feral cat in a tumbledown cabin that used to be somebody's summer place. Yesterday, Mom had spent an hour on the phone, patient, gentle, and utterly implacable. I should find another husband, move into a nice suburban colonial, start raising kids. I lost sleep over the call, but that was all she'd accomplished. No way was I getting married again. One painful failure was enough.

  Tired and grumpy, I sighed and scrambled up from the step. A walk in the woods might help get rid of my blues.

  There was nothing within miles of the cabin, except for one brooding, barn-like place with a humped roof, which someone--a long time ago--had built in the meadow that borders the woods. Even in summer, when the tourists flock north, the house remained unoccupied. The ugly building lurked at the edge of my territory, and I felt a creeping sensation along my spine every time I caught a glimpse of it, especially at dusk, when it resembled a crouching beast. As usual, I avoided it and followed a trail that went in the opposite direction.

  The path was narrow, thick with rotting leaves, and I scuffed my feet, releasing the moist, loamy smell that reminded me of greenhouses. Overhead, a blue jay flashed from branch to branch yelling, "Eeee", and another answered it from somewhere far off. The hollow whir of a woodpecker's hammering sounded high up in a dead tree. The world and all its troubles faded and I felt at peace.

  I'd almost reached the pond when the back of my neck prickled as if someone were watching me. I stopped and looked around, but there was nobody in sight. The feeling persisted. I told myself there was probably a deer, vigilant and wary, peering from a thicket, and I walked on, shrugging off a faint unease.

  At the edge of the pond, I slumped down on a fallen log. Trees whispered and branches rubbed and creaked in the wind, blending with the gentle lap of water. I closed my eyes and dozed in the dappled April sunshine. Through a dream, I heard a child's voice calling. Heavy and drugged with sleep, I opened my eyes to a sunlit dazzle.

  "Ma'am?"

  There really was a child. She must have crept up noiseless as a shadow, and she stood at my elbow, looking at me through a fringe of silken blonde hair. I blinked and stared. She couldn't have been more than eight years old, and as far as I could tell, she was alone. And we were in the middle of the woods, a mile from the nearest road.

  "Are you lost?"I asked.

  She looked down and scuffed one small sneaker in the dirt. "No, ma'am."

  She was little and delicate, wearing the usual kid's uniform--blue jeans, puffy pink jacket, white T-shirt with a gaudy, multicolored design. In one hand, she clutched a flop-eared toy rabbit with ratty white fur and button eyes. It looked old and grungy, but her fingers made little stroking movements through its fur, and I could tell it was a favorite.

  She gazed at me shyly with haunting blue-gray eyes. "Ma'am, will you come with me?"

  "Come where, honey?"

  "To my daddy. I'm scared."

  I hesitated. There was something about this child that drew me to her and kindled emotions I didn't want to recognize.

  She tugged at my sleeve. "Please, ma'am. He's hurting."

  "All right, I'm coming."I pushed myself up off the log. "Has he had an accident?"

  She didn't answer. Already, she was scampering back along the trail. I stumbled after her, still only half-awake. The narrow path twisted so I lost sight of her, and I wondered if she was real. Or was I still dreaming on the tree stump by the pond? Then I caught a glimpse of neon-pink through a screen of new-leafed honeysuckle, and I struggled to catch up.

  At the place where the trail divides, she shot a quick glance over her shoulder, as if to make sure I was still with her. Then she darted along the path toward the monster house. I had a nasty premonition, and I was suddenly wide awake.

  "Have you come from the big house in the meadow?"I called. "Is that where your daddy is?"

  "Yes, ma'am."

  My steps faltered. I couldn't go into that house. Not to face a strange man. Esp
ecially in a situation that had frightened his daughter so badly she'd run away to find help. And it struck me then: How could she have known I'd be there, deep in the woods? Anxiety shaded into fear. I wasn't going one step farther until I had some answers. I suppose she heard me stop, because she turned and looked at me questioningly.

  "Won't you tell me your name, and what's happened to your daddy?"I asked.

  "I'm Jenny Rayne, and my daddy's name is Jim."Her voice caught on a sob, and she hugged the little rabbit against her chest. "He's going to kill himself, and it's all because of me."

  I gasped and reached out for her. "Oh, sweetheart, of course it's not your fault."

  She evaded me and turned to run again, and I went after her, my mind in chaos. If the child was right, we were in trouble. I didn't know how to deal with a suicidal man. If he were intent on destroying himself, I wouldn't be able to stop him. And what if it was already too late? Dear God, I thought, please don't let it happen. Don't let him do this to her.

  We came to the edge of the wood where an old wire fence marked the boundary of my property. Most of its strands lay rusting on the ground, half-buried in decayed vegetation, but it had always represented an insurmountable barrier to me. Jenny halted in front of it, trembling.

  "What is it, honey?"I asked.

  "I have to wait here,"she said. "Please don't tell Daddy I told you about him."

  I couldn't force the child to go with me, but it didn't seem right to leave her there. Common sense told me I should take her back to my cabin, phone for help. But it would take so long, perhaps more time than her father had. Jenny gazed at me, her face pale and full of trust, a little ghost of a child who should have been at play with her friends, not crushed by the terrible burden of her father's despair. My heart went out to her, and I knew I couldn't go back. I drew a few long, deep breaths and stepped over the fence.

  And minutes later, I was standing at the Raynes's back door.

  * * *

  Close up, the house looked sturdy and built to last, its wood siding stained a weathered dark gray. The door stood ajar, and I knocked tentatively. There was no answer. I knocked again, harder. Still no one came, and I shied away from the thought of a man lying in his blood somewhere inside. I blew out a panicky breath and pushed the door open. It moved stiffly, old hinges creaking. I crept inside and found myself in a big, dim kitchen. A man stood at the farther end of the room, and his cold voice stopped me in my tracks.