5

by James Phelan

  Issey allowed himself a small smile.

  “Look, this is …” Sam trailed off.

  What else can I say?

  “You have to live out your dream now,” Sam said, “then you have to keep going so that when the time comes, when we eventually get to the Dream Gate, we can all do what has to be done.”

  “I know that this is not like what I usually do—it’s not a game.”

  Sam made a show of being surprised. “I thought your games were more than that. I thought it was a sport, a profession.”

  “Yes,” Issey said, breaking into a grin. “Yes, OK, I admit it. I have been playing around with games all these years. You know, a few hours ago, gaming was my whole world. I thought what I did was making people happy. I thought it was the most important thing.”

  Sam nodded, then signalled for another round of tea.

  “I think,” Issey said, “that my gaming was like a quick moment of happiness. What we are doing now, with this dreaming, finding this Gear and unlocking the mysteries of so long ago, is permanent. It is literally … life and death, yes?”

  “Sure is,” Sam said. “And if we don’t succeed? Then someone else will.” He stared outside into the night. Heavy rain was falling, the coloured neon lights of the laneway of bars and eateries melding into a futuristic multi-coloured haze. “I see Tobias,” he said, getting up to make the introductions as Tobias came in.

  Tobias looked relieved to see them unharmed. He was drenched from the deluge outside. “Sorry it took me so long,” he said, changing his Stealth Suit to a lighter material in the warm bar, leaving a rather large puddle on the floor from the rain.

  “Where are my parents?” Issey asked.

  “They dropped me around the corner from here, they’re headed to a safe house.”

  “Oh,” Issey said.

  “We had to be sure we weren’t being followed,” Tobias said. “I walked around ten blocks to get here, and they’re going to drive through the back streets. Stella has her Agents everywhere looking for us.”

  “So we must make our steps very carefully,” Issey said.

  “That’s right,” Tobias said. “Stay off phones unless they’re secure. Be careful not to be caught on security cameras, that kind of thing.”

  “Really?” Issey said.

  “Yes,” Sam replied. “Stella has a computer genius working for her, and he’s able to track us by hacking into cameras all over the world and finding our faces through facial recognition software.”

  “I’ll take that,” Tobias said, taking Issey’s phone and dropping it into a glass of iced tea as Issey’s jaw dropped. “Even the camera here in this café, in the corner behind you? If it’s linked to a security system with links to the Internet, then Matrix will find a way to access it.”

  “Oh,” Sam said, feeling foolish for not thinking of that.

  “Or you could be identified in the background of someone’s photo if they post it online,” Tobias said. “Matrix’s programs will match your face and then work out the time of the photo and location, then they’ll pull down data from every camera in the area to map your movements, then—bam!”

  Tobias clapped his hands together.

  “So we’d better leave,” Sam said, standing, trying to shield his face from the camera but knowing it’d be too late anyway.

  “Stick close,” Tobias replied, pushing the door open.

  “Where is this safe house?” Issey asked.

  “Your parents said to meet where you went for your thirteenth birthday,” Tobias replied, as they slipped out onto the street.

  Issey looked puzzled and Sam worried that perhaps the message was too vague.

  “Aha!” Issey said, smiling triumphantly in the rain. “Of course!”

  “You know where to go?” Sam said, adding a hood to his Stealth Suit.

  “Oh, yes,” Issey replied. “That and more! While I was busy thinking about something else, my mind has remembered where the next Gear is.”

  23

  ALEX

  0:17

  Matrix made a sound, stirring awake—the blow to the back of the head had obviously not rendered him entirely unconscious.

  Alex grabbed him around the collar, shaking him. “The code!” he yelled. “What is it?”

  “Never.”

  0:14

  Shiva put the wristband and digital readout right in front of Matrix’s eyes, which opened wide when he realized what was about to happen.

  0:13

  Shiva passed Matrix the phone.

  0:12

  Matrix fumbled the phone, his hands shaking as he tried to punch in a code.

  0:08

  “Come on!” Alex gasped. He saw Shiva starting to pull away from them, to shield them from the blast.

  No!

  Matrix’s sweat dripped onto the handset as he keyed in a code.

  0:05

  The phone made a series of loud beeps and then—

  0:02.

  The countdown stopped.

  There was a heavy moment of silence. Matrix collapsed on the floor in shock, Shiva simply stood stock-still, looking at the wristband. Then Alex began whooping.

  “That was unbelievable!” he shouted out. “That was out of sight crazy! Did you see that?”

  “See it—I was there!” Shiva replied, now falling to the ground in a heap, putting his head between his legs. He sat back up suddenly, reaching for pliers on a nearby table. He used them to remove the wristband, breaking the two straps at the clasp and both wires with it. Then he slumped down once more.

  “It—it stopped at two seconds!” Alex was dancing around from foot to foot.

  “I know, nail-biting stuff, eh?” Shiva tried to laugh through his shock.

  “Hey, you! Don’t you even think about it!” Alex said to Matrix, hefting the big wrench above his head.

  Matrix raised his hands in surrender. “Don’t hurt me,” he whined.

  “Hold on, there’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Shiva said, getting up to run gaffer tape around Matrix’s arms and around the back of the office chair, spinning him around until it was about fifteen layers thick.

  “You pathetic idiots,” Matrix spat out. “You don’t even understand what you’re up against!”

  “Really, you always wanted to tape up your boss?” Alex said, ignoring Matrix and inspecting his friend’s handiwork. “That’s just weird.”

  “Figure of speech,” Shiva replied. “But I have always wanted to whack him over the head with a wrench ever since I knew he was a traitor.”

  Matrix fell silent.

  Shiva went to the computers, checking over the coding Matrix had been running.

  “No way …” he said.

  “What was he up to?” Alex asked.

  “He’s … he’s rewired Tesla’s dream coils not to see into the Dreamscape, but to work in reverse.”

  “Huh?”

  “Look here,” Shiva said, scrolling through dozens of pages of code. “This is almost the opposite of what I was doing, which was what the machines were designed to do.”

  “To look into dreams?” Alex added.

  “Right. Well, somehow they’ve managed to capture certain dreams and send them back out into the Dreamscape,” Shiva said. “I’d heard rumours for years that this sort of thing was in development. I mean, we can record dreams, even on large scales, but to transmit a dream back into the Dreamscape? I mean, that’s …”

  “Science fiction,” Alex concluded.

  “You never were that smart,” Matrix sneered.

  Shiva ignored him.

  “Why would Stella want to do this?” Alex asked.

  “I don’t know … could be a number of reasons.”

  “Like?”

  “Sending nightmares out into the world,” Shiva suggested.

  “You think so small,” Matrix said. “Anyone could do that, and even with this tech, Tesla could have done it a century ago.”

  “So it’s about locating the Drea
mers,” Shiva said, “the rest of the last 13.” He stopped. “No, it’s something more than that … something so big that you would need to tap into the entire Dreamscape. The Academy? No, it has to be bigger, global …”

  “I know what they’re trying to do,” Alex said, breaking into a smile of realization. “You’re right, it is global.”

  Matrix’s face looked ashen as it became obvious that Alex had figured it out.

  I knew all that reading up about the Academy and the Dreamer world was going to come in handy.

  Alex looked from Matrix to Shiva and said, “They’re going to hijack the Dreamer Doors.”

  24

  SAM

  Tobias packed away the dream recorder, and Sam was puzzled.

  “It was so dark,” Sam said, “are you sure you know the location?”

  “Yes,” Issey said, looking to his parents, who nodded. They and Tobias were all seated at the “safe house”—the ticket booth of an amusement park, closed for the night.

  Sam had taken an instant liking to Issey’s parents, Haruto and Megumi. They were both elegantly dressed in suits—Haruto tall and strong with square glasses and a serious smile, Megumi much shorter, with long flowing hair and a handshake Sam could trust.

  Agents or not, they seem like good people.

  “You think it’s on an island?” Tobias was saying.

  “We went there once, for a tour, with some school friends, remember, father?”

  “I do,” Haruto replied. “That was a good trip.”

  “Good, but you two were scared,” Megumi added.

  “It’s scary?” Sam said.

  “We camped for the night on the island,” Issey explained to Sam and Tobias. “It was like a haunted tour, and going there we were all laughing and joking about who would have nightmares.”

  “But then, through the night, we heard the sounds,” Haruto said.

  “Sounds?” Sam said, remembering the guttural growls that he’d heard in his own dream of Issey.

  “They were not natural,” Issey said. “No animal I’ve ever heard.”

  Issey’s mother laughed. “My boys, scared of things that come out at night.”

  “You were not there, my dear,” her husband said.

  “There are reasons why the island was deserted,” Issey said. “We’d heard stories—and then we heard the actual sounds.”

  “Surely they wouldn’t let tourists go there to camp if there was some kind of real danger?” Tobias said.

  “The noises came from underground,” Issey’s father said, “from the tunnels and rooms that are carved throughout the rock and down under the sea.”

  “And you’re sure that’s where your dream led you?” Sam asked.

  “I’m sure of it,” Issey said. “I will never forget that place. The dream felt like it was another time, but the island was the place.”

  “OK,” Sam said, getting up. “There’s no time to waste, because the longer we wait around, the more chance Stella or Solaris has of catching up with us.”

  “Agreed,” Tobias said. “Although we’ll need to stock up on some supplies.”

  “No need,” Haruto said, and he led them over to his car. He opened the trunk and removed a large rucksack. In it were several flashlights, helmets, climbing gear, backpacks, rations, GPS units and more.

  “It’s my dad’s emergency survival pack,” Issey explained, pride in his voice. “Always ready for the next tsunami, nuclear meltdown or zombie apocalypse.”

  “And whatever we might face,” Sam said. “OK, get us to this island.”

  “On the way,” Issey’s father said, “perhaps I can use your phone, Tobias? I would very much like to try to reach Kaga. We are very worried about him.”

  “Of course,” Tobias said, handing over his phone.

  Sam walked on with the others, fearful that Haruto would not hear good news.

  Sam finished throwing up as the island came into sight.

  “Some hero, eh?” he said to Issey, who was hanging onto him as he stood at the rail of the boat, heaving up and down and side to side in the stormy black sea.

  “I used to get seasick too,” Issey said, “but I’ve been fishing with my dad so long now that I’m used to it. This is a bad night and the storm doesn’t help, if that makes you feel better?”

  Sam nodded, still feeling too ill to leave the side of the boat. The boat taking them to the island was a small fishing vessel, big enough to hold maybe ten people, with a small covered wheelhouse and an area below deck with bunk beds. Haruto was steering, while Megumi and Tobias were holding on and looking quite pale themselves as the boat hit wave after wave and was battered by the strong squalls.

  “How do we get up there?” Sam said loudly into Issey’s ear, pointing to the top of the cliffs ahead of them, where he could just make out the shapes of buildings.

  “The other side,” Issey yelled back. “There’s a small jetty, and a cage elevator up the side.”

  Sam swallowed against more rising bile. The island looked like it was built to withstand all manner of attacks. The sheer rock walls rose twenty metres above the sea, the constructed stone and concrete walls another twenty or thirty metres above that. There were very few openings in the rocks that Sam could see, but there was not much light to see by.

  At least my feet will be on solid ground.

  Lightning lit the sky and the clouds opened up with a heavy deluge of rain, the likes of which Sam had never felt.

  “Any news on Kaga yet?” Sam shouted in Issey’s ear.

  “No,” he replied, looking out to sea. “The fire department is still putting out the fire.”

  “He might be OK, you know.”

  Issey nodded.

  Sam looked up at the island as they neared and started to sail around to the other side, the swell of the waves now hitting against their wooden-hulled boat broadside, the rocking side-to-side so intense that he had to hold on with both hands to avoid being thrown overboard.

  “This place is known as Obakeshima,” Issey yelled over the wind, the island no longer sheltering them from its full force. “It once had government staff working here, but then it became completely deserted, practically overnight.”

  “Why?”

  “Lots of stories, but no one seems to know for sure.”

  “Very mysterious. It looks like a fortress!” Sam yelled, the boat turning again, this time the waves breaking behind it, pushing against the stern and sweeping them fast toward the tiny concrete jetty, almost indistinguishable against the wild seas and dark craggy rock and concrete walls.

  Time to find out what’s really on this island.

  25

  They neared the island’s jetty and Issey’s father threw the boat’s engine into full reverse, but it was too late. In the fierce weather that was rapidly getting worse, a wave surged them toward the pier.

  Sam moved away from the side of the boat that was heading in—

  Way too fast!

  “Hold on!” Tobias yelled.

  The boat slammed against massive truck tires tied against the pier, sending the wooden craft bouncing back out to sea, the reversing engine countering the effect of the waves as Issey’s father navigated back to shore.

  “Okaasan!” Issey called out, and Sam watched as his friend rushed to help his mother who was on the floor of the boat, holding onto her arm.

  “It’s broken,” Tobias said to Haruto after administering first aid. “Can we tie the boat to the pier and get onto more stable ground?”

  “It’ll be smashed into toothpicks by the waves against that pier, tires or no tires,” he answered. “I can drop you off and head out to wait in calmer water on the other side of the island, and pick you up later.”

  Tobias looked from Issey’s mother to the jetty and then to Sam. “OK,” he said. “Sam, you and Issey make your way up to the complex. I’ll take Megumi around to the sheltered side of the island and take care of her arm. Then we’ll come back around and I’ll follow you up in the
elevator.”

  “Shouldn’t we stick together?” Sam said.

  “We can send the elevator back down once we’re up there,” Issey said. “It only takes ten minutes to go down and come back up.”

  Only?

  “Take us in again, Haruto,” Tobias said. He took over cradling Megumi from Issey, who readied himself by the bow with Sam.

  “Be quick as you can!” Sam shouted, then he jumped ashore as the boat neared, sprinting along the concrete pier, Issey close behind. They turned and waved off the boat, which was already heading out of the tiny harbour.

  “Follow me!” Issey said and led the way forward, the reflective patches on his backpack flashing under the beam of Sam’s flashlight.

  Sam almost ran into a small sign as they skidded to the base of the cliff. He shone the flashlight onto it.

  Issey stopped beside him. “Here we are,” he said.

  “What’s with the graffiti?” Sam asked.

  “That’s what it means in English,” Issey replied.

  Ghost Island? Are you kidding me?

  Sam turned back to where the pier ended in a vertical concrete slab, almost as though it came from the sea and up the wall. There was a metal track with notched teeth set into it, where the elevator would slowly make its journey.

  But there was no elevator.

  “You said your father knew the island’s superintendent.”

  “He does,” Issey yelled, shining his flashlight up, but its beam was lost in the rain before it could find the bottom of the elevator.

  “I thought he organized for the elevator to be down here and the generator on?” Sam said, holding onto a rail bolted into the concrete to stop himself from being blown off the pier in the hurricane winds.

  “He did!”

  “Then where’s the elevator?”

  Issey cast his light in front of them and found a call button set into the wall and pulled the large lever to the down position. Large, well-greased chains started to move alongside the teethed track.