The Dawn of Dae (Dae Portals Book 1)

by Anderson, Trillian

  “Get a good look around, and pick the best way down,” I replied, searching for surveillance cameras. I couldn’t find any obvious ones. With a thoughtful hum, I turned in a slow circle. “Dodge security if they come sniffing around in the meantime.”

  There were two skyscrapers close enough to reach with a zip-line rig, and both were taller than the Ivory Tower. I frowned, wondering why I hadn’t noticed the presence of so many buildings five or six stories taller than the elite’s favored housing complex.

  Maybe I had been so fixated on what I wanted to become I hadn’t bothered to look any further than my goals. Earning the right to live within the Ivory Tower was the pinnacle of a dock rat’s hopes for the future.

  “I take it we’ll climb down to the ground from one of the sides?” Rob once again glanced over the ledge. “Those little discs are really strong enough for this?”

  “They are. I was thinking we’d zip across to one of the other skyscrapers and rappel down it; we’re less likely to be spotted that way.”

  “Zip across? What do you mean?”

  I joined Rob, pointing at the building across from Terry’s window. “With a good toss, I can secure the disc to that building. I’ll secure the second disc to this one. If the toss is high, I’ll use the winch to get across, otherwise I’ll slide along the line.”

  “That seems rather dangerous, Miss Daegberht.”

  “Seems? It is.” I pointed at the street. “It might hurt for a split second before you’re flattened into a pancake.”

  “I was trying not to think too hard about what would happen if you fell,” Rob grumbled.

  “I’m pretty sure the laws of physics also apply to dae—mostly.”

  “Mostly is the keyword.” He pointed at Colby, who bounced onto the ledge and flung itself off. Rob slapped his hand over my mouth to muffle my shriek. My roommate adhered to the side of the Ivory Tower and, in a cascade of noodles, launched across to the neighboring skyscraper. It glowed, a faint orange smudge on the distant dark glass.

  “Colby,” I choked out, my anxiety at its impossible leap chilling me more than the cold wind.

  “And then there is Colby,” Rob said, heaving a sigh. “Likes giving people heart attacks, that one.”

  With another leap, Colby returned to the Ivory Tower and, after several long moments, slithered over the ledge. “Mommy!”

  “Colby.” I swallowed several times. Remembering my macaroni and cheese cutting through the window, I resisted my initial urge to hug my leftovers.

  “Mommy?”

  Rob laughed, pushing me away from the ledge. “Don’t worry, Colby. She was just frightened you’d fall. Which building do you want to rappel down?”

  I pointed at the one on the other side of the Ivory Tower. “They’re going to see the busted out pane of glass and start looking around, and the last thing we want is to be spotted while dangling so many stories above the ground.”

  “Let’s get a move on before someone does decide to check the roof,” Rob said, and in silent agreement, I grabbed my case and followed after him.

  Security did come to check the roof, and I hid behind one of the garden sheds with Rob, holding my breath and ready to draw my Beretta. I heard the door, located on the other side of the roof, slam shut.

  The last thing I needed was a scuffle with a guard. If we injured or killed one, our chances of escape would plummet, and the penalty if we got caught would skyrocket. Rob pressed his hand to the middle of my back, his fingers splayed.

  My partner-in-crime peeked around the corner of the shed. “He left.”

  “Lazy,” I muttered, marveling at how the guard still had a job.

  “They likely checked the surveillance cameras for the hallway, saw we didn’t leave the condominium, and discovered the knocked-out window. They’re probably looking for corpses on the street—or assumed flying dae were responsible.”

  “I’m aware,” I snapped, and because of my paranoia, I went through the effort of checking over both of our harnesses again. “The hard part is going to be securing the anchor to the other building.”

  “Colby?” Rob asked.

  “Mommy!” Without hands, I wasn’t quite sure how Colby managed to adhere itself to one of my anchors, but it gave a tug and lurched in the direction of the ledge. I pressed on the winch’s controller to let out sufficient line to reach the other building.

  “Colby, you’re going to have a maximum of fifty feet to work with. I’ll set up my anchor on the frame on this side. When you’re in place, I’ll activate the electromagnets on your anchor. Don’t get between the disc and the building, and make sure the anchor is over the framework between the windows.” I leaned against the barricade, glancing down at the street below. It was more of a broad access alley for commercial vehicles, which suited me. The early-morning delivery folks wouldn’t begin work for a couple of hours, which would give us plenty of time to rappel down.

  I drew in a deep breath, clapped the disc to the side of the building, and activated the anchor. It gave off a faint buzz, and a tiny blue light flashed from the center of the disc. After Monica’s warning, I took my time testing the device, and still doubting my strength, I turned to Rob. “Give this a tug, would you?”

  Rob came up beside me, grabbed the line, and gave a jerk. His eyes widened when he couldn’t move it. “That’s strong.”

  “Strong enough to hold our combined weight and then some, though I wouldn’t want to test just how strong they are.”

  If the harnesses were set to my specifications, mine had a lower grip strength than Rob’s, but it would be enough to get me and my gear down intact. Rob’s could probably stop a car in its tracks, although it wasn’t something I had ever tried.

  “I have the master control unit. I’ll cross first, get your anchor set, and help you over. We’ll be going down together, so I’ll control both our discs at one time. Your harness does have a control unit as well.” If anything did happen to my unit, Rob would have the ability to activate and deactivate our discs, and I took a moment to show him how the device worked. “Don’t touch your controls unless there’s a problem with mine.”

  “And if there’s a problem with yours?”

  “Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen.” If Rob hadn’t figured out any problems would likely result in my death, I wasn’t going to enlighten him. I gave the disc a tug, sighed, and nodded to Colby. “Be careful.”

  With a delighted squeal, my casserole backed away from the ledge, got a fast, hopping start, and lunged off the skyscraper. Once again, my roommate glowed, allowing me to see it on the opposite building. I counted to twenty before activating the second disc. Colby hopped away from it, bounced on the glass, and dove across the alley to splat into the side of the Ivory Tower.

  “Mommy!” it announced, climbing onto the ledge.

  “Great job, Colby.” I grabbed the cable with both hands and jerked with all my might. It held. Without me needing to ask for his help, Rob also tested it.

  “Doesn’t look like there are any problems,” he said.

  “I’ll take your anchor with me and set you up once I’m across, but I’ll test both discs here first,” I said and went through the same testing process on Rob’s discs.

  They both held.

  “It seems your concerns were unfounded.”

  “Don’t jinx us, please,” I begged, giving the line enough slack I could crawl over the building’s ledge. I eased my feet over first, all my weight resting on my elbows. There’d be no chance of gripping the glass with the heeled boots Rob had bought for me; the only type of shoes capable of doing it cost a fortune, required special ordering, and were individually fitted.

  I’d never owned a pair and doubted I ever would. Aware my left hand and wrist probably wouldn’t hold my weight, I used it to control my winch, cutting the slack in the line until I felt the pressure on my harness.

  “Be careful,” Rob hissed at me.

  “Give me your disc and as much slack as you can,”
I ordered, reaching up with my left hand. When I had a good grip on the disc, I clipped it to the front of my harness. “Other disc.”

  Rob handed it to me, and I clamped it into place on the Ivory Tower above mine.

  “Pay attention, Rob. See the red flip switch on the side of your control remote?”

  “Yes.”

  “If something goes wrong before I get your anchor on the other side attached, flip it.”

  “What does it do?”

  “It’ll release your cable from your harness. There’s no point in having both of us hit the asphalt,” I replied, and with my heart drumming a frantic rhythm in my throat and ears, I lowered all my weight on to the cable. Colby had gotten the anchor fairly level, and as a result, I was able to pull myself along hand over hand.

  I focused all of my attention on the flashing blue light of my anchor so I wouldn’t make the mistake of looking down. My awareness of the fact I dangled hundreds of feet above the ground intensified as I worked my way across.

  At the faint slackening in my cable, I jerked my hand down to the winch to check it was still locked. It was. I jerked my head up; the anchor was fifteen feet away, and the blue light was blinking at the appropriate interval. I gripped the cable and twisted to check the anchor behind me in time to watch its light flash red.

  It popped off the Ivory Tower.

  I dropped the fifteen feet until Rob’s anchor disc jammed in my harness, which brought me to a bone-jarring halt. The laws of physics took over, swinging me on a collision course with the office building neighboring the condominium complex.

  I smacked into the glass, and everything went black.

  The rappelling harnesses weren’t designed to handle deadweight; the straps cut into me, rousing me enough I realized I was still alive. My ears rang, which made it harder to concentrate and figure out what had happened—and why.

  My entire body throbbed, which didn’t surprise me. An uncontrolled collision with a thick glass wall wasn’t ideal under any circumstances. One of my anchors had ceased functioning, and I had hit the window face first. While aware I needed to at least try to brace my feet under me, I couldn’t force my body into motion.

  I hung limp, swinging in the gusting autumn wind. With my head bowed, I got a very good view of the asphalt some four hundred feet below. The lamps marking where the alley met the main road illuminated pinprick-sized patches of street.

  The failed disc, secured to the same mechanism I had attached Rob’s cable, was jammed against the dae’s anchor. Something was wrong about the angle of the lines, but through the throb in my skull, I couldn’t identify what. I frowned, trying to puzzle out why there was an angle at all instead of a vertical line between me and my functional anchor.

  One of the lines cut over my shoulder, digging into the side of my neck. The other stretched straight above me to my single functioning anchor. I blinked, struggling to lift my head.

  Rob’s line should have dangled loose over my back, if he had flipped the switch as I had instructed. The cable from his harness would have released, which should have also deactivated his anchor at the same time. Rolling waves of vertigo crashed over me, and I closed my eyes to ease the dizzying way everything spun around me.

  I must have whacked my head into the glass when I hit the skyscraper, which didn’t surprise me. The memory of striking it remained a pain-filled blur, but I hadn’t had time to control my plummet.

  “Mommy?” Colby cried somewhere in the general vicinity of my head.

  Cracking open an eye, I caught a glimpse of orange in my peripheral vision. The first noise I made was an incomprehensible groan. I swallowed in an effort to control my stomach.

  Throwing up while dangling from the fortieth or so story wasn’t my idea of a good time.

  The cables keeping me from dropping to my death jerked, and several moments later, two thumps heralded Rob colliding with my back. His hands slapped to the glass on either side of my head.

  “Mommy!”

  Rob worked one of his arms under mine to grab the front of my harness. “Colby, make me a handhold,” he ordered.

  Sliding into my limited range of vision, my roommate left a smear of cheese, which dissolved through the glass, leaving a slit barely large enough for Rob’s hand. The dae clutched the glass. “Toe holes.”

  Colby slithered along the front of the skyscraper out of view.

  “Miss Daegberht?” Rob demanded in my ear.

  While I knew I should’ve responded, I struggled to cling to consciousness. I focused on my breathing, drawing steady breaths to slow my frantic heartbeat.

  “Alexa?”

  The panic in the dae’s voice drew my attention back to him, and after several swallows, I mumbled, “Didn’t flip your switch.”

  Rob tightened his hold on me, pulling me closer to him. “No shit I didn’t flip the switch. There’s no fucking way I’m abandoning you.”

  I could tell the instant Rob jammed his toes into the holes Colby made for him. He straightened behind me, pressing me to the glass. “Colby, can you fetch my anchor? I’ve got a solid enough hold to keep her from falling.”

  “Mommy!”

  My macaroni and cheese was versatile, I had to admit. Instead of leaping across to the Ivory Tower, it slithered over my chest and climbed along Rob’s line.

  “What the hell happened?” Rob demanded.

  “Don’t know,” I mumbled, shaking my head in a futile effort to clear the ringing from my ears. My vision remained blurred, and the motion worsened the throb in my skull. “Anchor cut out.”

  “How did it cut out?”

  Shaking my head made my nausea worse. It took several deep breaths to settle my stomach. There hadn’t been much of a chance for me to see much of anything, but the anchor had behaved as though I had intentionally cut the power to it so I could reset it. “You didn’t hit any buttons, did you?”

  “Of course I didn’t,” he snapped.

  The slackening of the line was the initial warning the anchor was about to shut off. I remembered the way the cable’s tension lessened, buying me enough time to see the red light flash.

  It amazed me my second anchor still held. Rob’s descent to join me would have tested the anchor’s strength—or had it? How had he reached me without yanking me away from the skyscraper on his way over? Despite Rob’s hold on me, most of my weight rested against my harness and the anchor jammed against my ribs. If it gave, I wondered if the dae would be able to keep his grip on me and the skyscraper even with the help of Colby’s cuts in the glass.

  “Alexa?” The way Rob’s tone changed warned me I had missed something.

  “What?”

  “Are you hurt?”

  “Almost definitely,” I replied, wondering what I had broken—if anything—when I had hit the glass.

  “I don’t suppose you can define that a little for me?”

  “I haven’t died yet.” I was rather proud I managed to get the entire sentence out without throwing up. “This is not what was supposed to happen.”

  “So I gathered.”

  Colby slapped against the glass right over my head, startling a gasp out of me. He had Rob’s anchor with a chunk of metal and glass still attached to it. “Mommy!”

  “Good job, Colby. Alexa, how do I turn off the disc so I can reset it? Without cutting power to yours, that is.”

  My arms refused to cooperate with me, and shuddering at how helpless I was, I told him how to do it. Instead of Rob doing the work, Colby clung to me and manipulated the controller. I had no idea how a conglomeration of noodles and cheese had the ability to depress the switches, but after several long moments, the glass and metal detached from the disc and tumbled to the ground far below.

  Colby grabbed Rob’s disc and clambered up the side of the skyscraper. When it reached the maximum length of Rob’s cable, it sliced a hole in the glass, turned the disc, and crammed it into the opening, disappearing within the building. When it reemerged, Rob freed his hand from its hold, g
rabbed his line, and gave a tug.

  It held.

  “Now would be the time for a bright idea, Miss Daegberht.”

  “Winch and walk.”

  “I’m not sure I follow.”

  “Use the winch.” Drawing a deep breath, I explained how to activate the mechanism. “When it pulls you up, walk up the building.”

  “It’s strong enough to handle our combined weight?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Maybe,” he echoed. He sighed. “Maybe isn’t good enough.”

  “As long as my anchor keeps holding, you can pull me up after you’re at the top. Get yourself up first.”

  “Unacceptable.”

  “Don’t get us both killed being stupid,” I hissed. For all of his faults, I didn’t want Rob to end up dead because of my malfunctioning gear. Tears burned in my eyes, and I angrily blinked them away.

  Sliding along the glass, Colby came to a halt beside my head. “Mommy.”

  “She’s being stubborn,” Rob complained to my roommate. “She thinks I’m going to listen to her, leave her hanging here, and save my ass first.”

  “Mommy! Mommy, Mommy,” Colby scolded before slapping me across the face. My head snapped to the side from the force of the blow and stars burst in front of my eyes.

  I gasped, tears stinging my eyes.

  One thing was for certain; I’d never think of macaroni and cheese the same ever again. Colby packed quite the punch, and I wondered if I’d have a bruise to show for its temper. Probably.

  If I lived through the night, I’d explain to both of them the method to my madness—and why it was for all of our benefit to sacrifice the deadweight, me.

  “Let’s try this again. We are going to the top, and we will figure out how to get to the street level after I have had a chance to see how badly you’ve been hurt. The keyword here is ‘we.’ So, how do I get us to the top, Miss Daegberht?” Rob paused, and in a rueful tone, he added, “This is not my expertise.”

  “What isn’t? Hanging around getting in the way? I thought it’d come naturally for you,” I mumbled.

  He laughed and tightened his hold on me. “You’re really something else. You’ll just have to suffer, as I’m going to ignore your arguments and do what I want anyway. Any ideas on how to get up this skyscraper, or am I going to have to get creative?”